The God of Flash
by ToxicManipulator
Summary: What if, when Naruto created his unique Henge he didn't just stop there? What if, through a simple change of events, he turned the Kawarimi into something that would eventually rival the Hiraishin? Not bleach related. pairings undecided.
1. Chapter 1

The God of Flash

Chapter 1

By ToxicManipulator

* * *

Naruto had always been a contrasting bundle of energy as a child. Even now, at the ripe age of seven.

At age seven, the average child would be aware of the world around them. They say a child's keen mind can learn and master concepts much faster than an adult that would spent his or her time on. The keenly aware child would be able to tell when someone showed hatred or animosity toward them. Though true, it is often found that without a proper grasp on the concept of justice and honesty that a child can easily be mislead.

The blonde haired prankster in this case knew of the hatred and animosity directed at him by the villagers. Quite frankly, it was quite difficult not to notice.

Amongst his peers he was considered 'dead-last'. The dobe and idiot of his class. And rightly so. His grades were atrocious. At the very bottom of the class in fact.

This caused our blonde haired protagonist quite a bit irritation.

Naruto KNEW he gave his very level best. Considering how much his tutors blatantly sabotaged his studies he thought he did fairly well.

Kunai and shuriken accuracy? No problem, he got eight of ten bullseyes, even WITH his incorrect throwing technique. Stealth? Ha! Even those idiot 'revered ANBU' sometimes had difficulty locating him after a well played prank! History and math then? Eh.. Best not mention that.

As for the jutsu portion of his education, the young blonde knew when the time came his instructors would no doubt give him the right instructions.. to kill himself, that is.

It was through simple observation that Naruto proved his talent as a ninja. By simply observing the academy instructors perform the three most important of the academy jutsu he was able to do something similar to the vaunted Sharingan of the Uchiha. Monkey see, monkey do, no?

It took Naruto several weeks of adjusting and modifying the sealing sequence, but eventually he figured out the 'Henge-no-Jutsu'.

He had celebrated by redecorating the Ninja Academy with toilet paper. And there was much rejoicing.. in the form half the instructors attempting to crucify him.

His following breakthrough came when he managed to puzzle out the 'Kawarimi-no-jutsu'. Of course, his success didn't come without losing his fair share of teeth from incorrect use of the technique, but in the end he got it. He also found out the tooth fairy was a bunch of bull, and told his peers so. Many of the students' parents attempted to disprove him by removing his teeth.

For this, he had celebrated by making it impossible for the academy to have physical activities for a day by dumping it full of the logs he used for the 'Kawarimi-no-Jutsu'.

The blonde was on high! One step closer to becoming Hokage and gaining the respect of everyone! Now all that was left was figuring out the 'Bunshin-no-Jutsu'.

He had tried everything he could think of, but for the love of Ramen he just could not puzzle out how to get a simple academy clone illusionary technique to work. Use too much chakra? Brain dead clones. Too little? Brain dead clones. It was incredibly frustrating to say the least.

It is for that reason that Naruto, in one of his rare displays of intelligence, decided to ask the one person who actually WOULD help him. The Sandaime Hokage.

In hindsight, this small slip of fate changed the outcome of the world entirely. It is said, that a butterfly flapping its wings in Earth country, would cause a hurricane in Wind country. This is known as the butterfly effect.

And thus, our story begins.

* * *

"Hey wait de-brat! You can't go in there!"

Naruto responded by blowing a raspberry at the cursing young secretary and let himself into the office of the village leader. "Kiss my ass, mole-face!" Indeed, the young secretary had a horrendous disfigurement on her upper lip. But back to the story.

As the blonde entered the office he noticed the person he had affectionately dubbed 'old man', and on occasion 'old geezer', was quite busy with his hated foe, paperwork. But what caught the young blonde's interest most strongly was the fact that there were THREE old geezers working on paperwork, while a fourth sat on the nearby couch reading from an orange colored book.

Naruto could only blink in awe. If only his own clones could look alive like his and not horribly disfigured he would be able to boast being as cool as the Hokage. But alas, he had a long way to go until then.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up from his smutty novel and smiled at the the young child that frequently brought sunshine into his life, despite the horrible way most in the village treated him.

"Good evening, Naruto-kun. I did not expect you to visit me yet for another two weeks for your stipend. I hope you haven't spent it all on ramen again?," He asked, grinning wryly at the blonde while hiding his treasured book. The aged Hokage chuckled when the young blonde scratched the back of his head sheepishly while letting out a nervous laugh. He really wished the young blonde would eat more healthy foods than ramen, but alas, he simply seemed too addicted to his favored dish of broth and noodley goodness.

"Hey, hey! I only did that once Jiji! Why are you still griping about that?," He asked sulking, a pout clearly present on his face.

The smile on Hiruzens face widened even more and patted the boy on his head, letting out another chuckle. "Forgive me Naruto-kun. In my old age I must have forgotten that fact. Now, what brings you to my office? I hope you haven't caused any more mischief lately?"

Naruto's eyes twinkled in response as he remembered his latest 'act of mischief'. His landlord had cut off the warm water again for no reason. So in retaliation, the blonde took a hammer and removed the valves from every other apartment in his building after turning off their heated water. They still couldn't prove it was him.

"Eh hehe he.. No, I'm actually here because I need your help."

The aged Hokage rose an eyebrow slightly surprised. It was pretty rare for the young blonde prankster to ask him for any help aside from the little he already did for him. "And what exactly do you require help with, Naruto-kun?"

"Well... It's to do with the academy's 'main three'. I figured out how to do the 'Henge-no-Jutsu' and the 'Kawarimi-no-Jutsu', but no matter how or what I try I can't figure out how to use the 'Bunshin-no-Jutsu'." The blonde's lips turned downward, as if disgusted by the fact that he couldn't make it work.

Hiruzen seemed amazed. For someone so young to manage a way to get two out of three jutsu to work on his own is nothing short of incredible. The fact that he was still five years away before he should learn the Bunshin made it even more amazing. He frowned when he realized Naruto's use of words. He 'figured out' how to replicate these techniques. That implied the instructors didn't bother to help the young blonde. He'd have to send them all for a session to Ibiki just to be sure.

Pasting on a grandfatherly smile, Hiruzen asked his question. "Could you please show me how far you got with the 'Bunshin-no-Jutsu'? I might be able to tell you what's wrong then, Naruto-kun"

The blonde haired child nodded, did the seals necessary and with a puff of smoke there were two brain dead and deformed looking illusionary clones on the floor. One even begged Hiruzen to kill him. He sweat dropped. The child put two hundred times the maximum amount required for those clones.

"Naruto-kun, how much chakra did you use, if I may ask?"

Naruto blinked at the odd question, and shrugged. "I use the tiniest amount I could Jiji, just like I heard that Dolphin guy explaining to the other class I spi- walked by."

If the Hokage caught Naruto's slip of word, he made no mention of it. His mind however, was caught up on what the blonde had told him. The tiniest amount possible? Kami, how much chakra did this child have?

"Naruto-kun. I think I may have a theory on why it isn't working. I want you to create about two hundred Bunshin using the smallest amount of chakra you can."

The blonde nodded eagerly. "Hai! I'll definitely get it this time! Yosh!"

The seal sequence was run again. A slight, actually very large, depending on your view, flare of chakra later, and the large office was occupied with two hundred blinking and working clones of the orange clothed prankster.

"Yatta!"

Hiruzen didn't even blink. "I thought as much," he murmured.

"Naruto-kun!"

The blonde snapped to attention and looked up curiously at the wise Hokage. He rarely used 'the voice' on him. Every time he did, Naruto couldn't help but listen to each and every word as if they were the last he would ever hear.

"It would seem that your problem is not a physiological disorder or such, but a great lack, and I stress the word great, lack of chakra control. You simply have too much chakra to control effeciently like any other your age. It's a good thing you know this now, Naruto-kun. Because if you start training your chakra control at this early age, you wont have as much trouble as you would later years in your life should you not focus on chakra control. But I wonder..." He trailed off thoughtfully.

Naruto frowned. The old man had used a lot of big words but he thought he got the gist of it. The lowest amount of clones he could make without bombing the technique was two hundred? That sucked. And what's more, they couldn't move stuff like the old man's clones doing his paperwork. He bit his lip.

"Jiji?"

"Yes Naruto-kun?"

"Eh.. How come your Bunshin can pick up and move touchyble st-" "Tangible, Naruto-kun. Or Touchable if you prefer." He corrected the blonde. "Right, right, tangible stuff?"

Hiruzen smiled at the blonde. Reminiscing when his successor the Yondaime Hokage had revealed the secret of using shadow clones for paperwork. Pure genius! He had knocked himself unconscious as he slammed his head against a wall for not thinking of it sooner in his life.

"That is because they are not the normal Bunshin you know of Naruto-kun, but a variation called 'Kage Bunshin-no-Jutsu'. What it does is create a corporeal- tangible, Naruto-kun- form."

The blonde's eyes widened in awe, but for the second time that day a lightbulb went off in his mind. He frowned. "Wait a minute. Why do you have them do your paperwork then? How do you know they don't mess up important stuff on those papers?"

The Hokage's eyes widened, slightly tempted to attempt to dispel an illusion, but stopped when he realized it was nothing short of impossible to impersonate the blonde. When had he become so perceptive? Or was it a once in a while thing? No matter.

"Good question, Naruto-kun. What makes the 'Kage Bunshin' truly unique, is the fact that the user will recall anything the clone learns during its life."

Naruto scrunched up his eyebrows in thought. He seemed to be doing that a lot recently, he mused idly. Recall? During its life? So that basically meant whatever the clone remembered, he would remember. His eyes widened in awe. The practical application of such a jutsu was endless. He could prank every person in the village provided he could make enough of them! Truly the opportunities were endless!

"Teach me, please Jiji!"

Hiruzen chuckled when the young blonde looked at him like a kicked puppy. He patted his head. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. But the Kage Bunshin is a B-rank forbidden technique due to the fact that its enormous chakra requirements kill most people that try to use it."

The blonde frowned, and pouted pointedly at the Hokage. "But I have large reserves! You said so too, remember?!"

The wise old Hokage blinked. So he did. And indeed the blonde had enormous reserves for his age. High Chunin at the very least. The only problem lay in the fact that if word got out that he taught Naruto the technique, the council would be at his throat again. It was hard enough to get the blonde an apartment and into the ninja program as it was. If only there was some way he could teach him without really teaching him...

Hiruzen's eyes widened in realization. 'Of course!'

"Naruto-kun, I'm afraid I can't teach you the technique, as that would be favoritism... However..." The blonde looked up in hope after his short disappointment.

"I can show you how I perform the technique. Hopefully, like most people, you can't possibly figure out how to do it on your own merely from observing." He winked meaningfully at the blonde.

By the foxy grin on the blonde's face, he seemed to have understood what the Hokage had implied.

"Now pay attention." He made a cross seal slowly and deliberately, channeled a large amount of chakra externally to let the blonde know this technique required quite a bit of chakra, and released it, resulting in a puff of smoke, revealing a shadow clone.

Hiruzen grinned and went back to the couch to return to his reading. "Now then Naruto-kun, you best be on your way. You won't become Hokage standing around doing nothing, hm?"

He ran out of the office so fast the wise old man thought with humor that he might have used the shunshin for a moment.

Little did he know just how much the blonde would end up warping the technique into something so much better.

* * *

It went without saying that Naruto found out how to perform the shadow clone without much trouble. Of course he unknowingly reversed his hands when he made the cross seal. This small mistake would inevitably be the cause of a new variation of the Shadow clone. One that didn't require monstrous amounts of chakra for small quantities of them, but a variation that allowed many many clones in exchange for a much more reasonable amount. Truly, the blonde had the worst, or should I say, best of luck.

The blonde had finally gotten down everything he would need to graduate!(Or so he thought anyway.) Now all he needed to do was become famous so that the old geezer would give his hat to him. Then EVERYONE would respect him! Life was good.

That thought brought up the problem of how exactly he was going to become famous. He considered upping the ante for his pranks to gain more fame, or infamy depending on your view. He quickly trashed that idea though. Hokages were supposed to be strong-cool, not funny-cool.

His absent mindedness had him end up walking through the uchiha district without really knowing it. When he finally realized where he was his attention turned to two gossiping old ladies infront of an old weapon shop.

"Did you hear about Shisui of the Mirage? The poor poor boy committed suicide! It seems his duties were too much for him," The wrinkled elderly asked her companion.

"That's terrible! But whose Shisui of the Mirage? I don't think I've heard of him.." The second elderly lady took on a look of absent minded thoughtfulness. No doubt she suffered Alzheimer's disease. Senile old bat, the blonde thought.

"You can't remember? I told you about him a few weeks ago, silly goose! Anyway, he's Fugaku's, brother's, wife's, cousin's, nephew's, father's, aunt's, grandson's, neighbor's, mother's, sister's child." She answered in a matter of fact tone.

The second elderly frowned deep in though, making several calculations. "So what exactly does that make him?"

The first blinked. "Distantly related. Very distantly related. But that is not the point. Anyway, Shisui-kun got his name as legend from using a simple D-rank technique and becoming so adept at it that he's considered an A-rank ninja. Quite a lot of people fear his skill with that simple near academy skill. It's said he moves so fast with that skill, that it is as if he leaves behind a mirage when he fights! It's incredible!"

Naruto tuned out the rest of their inane drivel, his mind locked onto certain words. 'simple.. technique'.. 'adept'.. 'near academy skill'.. 'incredible'..

The blonde gasped in realization. Now he knew how to become a super awesome ninja like that dead Shisui guy. While his unwilling instructors at the academy wouldn't teach him any new techniques, he could use the weak academy techniques to become a super cool ninja!

Naruto's jaw set into grim determination as he walked back home, plans already forming in his mind. Shisui used a D-ranked technique to make himself very fast that his enemies could barely follow him. To surpass him he would have to use an E-rank technique to even GREATER effect. But which one would he use? The only one that dealt with movement was the... 'Kawarimi-no-jutsu'...

The blonde grinned mischievously. Yes, life was good. Soon things would look up for him.

He whistled a jaunty tune as he walked home.


	2. Chapter 2

The God of Flash

Chapter 2

By ToxicManipulator

* * *

Naruto had always liked considering himself a very innovative person. Just look at his thought process of being as inconstant and unpredictable as possible.

Though paradoxical, one constant with him was that he always tried to outdo himself. He had no competition when it came to pranks, so he made a rival of himself. A common happenstance amongst lonely orphan children.

Another paradox with him was that he was a genius. The blonde was by no means a genius of the prodigal nature. Oh no, that would just be silly. That, and he didn't want to be in the same boat as that duck-haired Uchiha 'genius'. "Who me? A genius like Sasuke-teme? HA, and ramen can talk!" Naruto's genius instead stemmed from his uniquely enigmatical way of accomplishing goals he set his mind to.

Unfortunately for him and his ninja career, he never once before bothered setting his mind to training, instead choosing to focus on pranks. Unfortunately for 'demon-haters', and fortunately for Naruto, his new ambition of emulating Shisui of the Mirage would change all that.

That brings us to Naruto examining his latest finding.

* * *

The blonde haired youth blinked the small headache away as he processed the information that just came from a dispelled shadow clone. Currently he was attempting to find out how long his shadow clones lasted, ergo, how useful they could be.

The clone with his attention on a watch turned to the blonde with a frown. "Number one-thirty-seven was five minutes twenty-seven seconds boss."

Naruto nodded and wrote down a note in his notebook. He chewed the pencil thoughtfully. They had been busy documenting this strange phenomenon for several hours now, and he could finally say that he could make an educated guess and give a conclusion. "It all comes down to chakra," he muttered.

He let out a sigh and gave the small training field filled with shadow clones a once over. He had initially started this small experiment as a means of seeing how many limits the shadow clone had, and in what ways he could use it to it's fullest potential.

The blonde was a firm believer in the saying 'waste not, want not'. Years spent being extra careful with the way he spent his money made it inevitable to become an ingrained habit. Which is why he was trying to figure out how to use the shadow clone technique to the greatest potential, without wasting said technique.

Not having clan techniques to call your own would do that to you.

"Alright guys, take five. I think I got it figured out." The surrounding clones responded vocally and dispelled themselves one after the other. "Yes boss!"

He wouldn't admit it aloud, but he enjoyed the feeling of importance that came with being called boss by so many. It certainly served to inflate his ego. It would even be better once he became Hokage, he thought giddily. Yes, he would force all his minions- eh.. subordinates, to call him boss-sama! Heh. Moving on.

Naruto had discovered that the more chakra he pumped into a clone, the longer it lasted, and consequently, the more hits it could take. The smaller the amount, the quicker it would dispel on its own. Another interesting speck of information he discovered, was that he could prolong their time and endurance by pumping chakra into them directly.

Naturally, the thought of self sustaining clones appealed to the young blonde. If he could make solid clones, give them a new appearance, make them self sustaining, then he could have a veritable network of spies in the village! Hell, he could even make one or two take a job and get easy cash! The only problem lay in the fact that he didn't know how to absorb chakra from outside sources. Or what sources it could be extracted from.

He decided to go ask his 'wise advisor', as he had newly dubbed the Sandaime Hokage, his thoughts on this.

* * *

"Hey Jiji! Hey Jiji!"

An orange blur rocketed into the office of the revered Hokage.

Said Hokage looked up from the crystal ball he was using to spy on the female side hot springs. He quickly hid it and cleaned up his bleeding nose.

"Hai Naruto-kun? What troubles you this evening? Not girlfriend troubles yet, I hope?"

The blonde ignored the perverted giggle the old man let out.

"Where can I find chakra?"

Hiruzen raised a dubious eyebrow. Didn't he already know of chakra? Or did his academy teacher purposely not tell him? He sighed. Another 'friend' for Ibiki later it seemed.

"I had thought you would know by now Naruto-kun. You use it for your ninjutsu after all."

The blonde pouted in response. "Yeah yeah, I already know that! But where ELSE can chakra be found?"

The old man's eyes widened in astonishment. Such a curious question. Definitely not related to the academy at all. He answered the young blonde's question. "As you should know, Naruto-kun, chakra is the combination of the physical and spiritual aspects of the human body. Combining them in a balanced mix gives you chakra, and in turn, because you balance two separate entities of power, chakra control."

The wise old man smiled thoughtfully. This was after all not a very commonly discussed aspect of chakra. "What many don't know, is that chakra is not limited to the body of humans alone. It can be found in nature as well. Animals.. Plants.. Trees and shrubbery.. Even every single droplet of natural water has a miniscule amount of it."

Naruto's eyes widened in wonder. "Amazing! Hey, Jiji, how can someone absorb chakra?"

This time it was Hiruzen's eyes that widened in wonder. Why on earth would the blonde be interested in something such as that? "May I ask why, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, A trait he unknowingly picked up from Hatake Kakashi when he was once his body guard as a younger child. "I figured out the 'Kage Bunshin-no-jutsu', and I figured out I can make them last longer by pumping chakra into them, but I want to find a way for them to absorb chakra to fuel and keep themselves running."

Hiruzen's jaw dropped slightly, clearly astounded at his unique idea. "That's an interesting idea you have there, Naruto-kun. As for how to absorb chakra.. There are two known ways for that to be possible. One is through the bloodline of the Akadou clan. It allows them to absorb chakra from other humans with chakra networks. They can NOT however use their bloodline on nature, as they do not know how to convert, or should I say, filter and purify that chakra into their own."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. The first was definitely out for him. Clanless orphans like him didn't just suddenly and magically sprout bloodlines. It didn't stop his fellow orphans back at the orphanage from pretending though. Hell, he himself even once pretended he had a bloodline that allowed him to see the underclothes of females! He stopped pretending though, after a beating via a mob of righteously furious girls.

"And the second way?"

The Sandaime smiled mysteriously. "One word. Seals."

Biting his lip thoughtfully, the blonde pondered his newest predicament. He knew of seals. The sealing arts helped wondrously with his pranks. Especially timed seals and storage seals for his paint explosion pranks. Of course, he couldn't use them for any more than that. The academy's library of sealing was extremely limited to a T. What's more, he couldn't access the shinobi library unless he was a registered ninja. They check for your nin-ID card whenever you enter, and those were nothing short of impossible to forge.

"Jiji, do you know a seal that lets you absorb chakra from Nature?"

The old man smiled at the blonde. "Of course! Many Chunin that have studied seals know this too. It is how we power Konoha after all. Through incredibly large and complex sealing arrays the natural ambient chakra is converted into lightning chakra that grants us electricity."

The blonde nodded eagerly. "Hey, hey, jiji! Could you please show me how to make a seal like that? I know everything the academy library has on seals, but I cant find anything like this there! Please?"

Hiruzen was once again pushed into a corner with the blonde's request. The council would waste months of time and resources giving him grief if they found out he helped the blonde in that aspect. And once again, inspiration struck.

He walked over to his nearby bookshelf, picked up three books detailing in sealing techniques going from academy level to high chunin, and put them onto his desk. And walked to his window and turned his back to the blonde. "Hmm... Those sure are some detailed books involving the basics and higher 'Fuinjutsu'. I just hope they don't get stolen somehow while my back is turned to them. Hmm... The monument is looking a bit dirty lately, I'll have send some genin to clean it up a bit..."

Naruto smirked in realization, and swiped the books and sealed them into a storage scroll on his person. He replaced them with three empty books he was going to use for notes and as journals. He turned tail and ran out of the office. "Bye Jiji! I'm gunna go eat some ramen. It's too bad I can't get some books on sealing though. Oh well!"

Hiruzen turned back to the desk, and waved at the blonde with a smile. He walked up to his desk and flipped open one of the three books, and spoke in a mock dramatic voice. "Oh dear! Someone has stolen my three books on sealing and replaced them with these empty books! ANBU! Did you see who did it?"

The sweat dropping Tenzou appeared out of the shadows. "Uh.. Gomen Hokage-sama. It would seem that I was looking at the dirty Hokage monument at the time. Do you wish me to attempt to track down the thief?"

Hiruzen waved him off. "It's fine, I'll hire a team of a gennin to do it. You can go back to your post."

Tenzou nodded and melded back into the shadows, a bit more weary of the eccentric old leader. Perhaps it was a trait of strong ninja? Kakashi shone as a prime example in his minds eye. Whatever the case, Tenzou wondered if the blonde would put the seals to good use, and not cause chaos with them.

Sadly, that is exactly what the blonde planned to do with them.

* * *

It is a commonly shared thought amongst the populace of Konoha that Uzumaki Naruto, a.k.a. 'demon-brat' and many other colorful decorative expletives, is an idiot. That does not however mean the boy is not clever. Whenever his mind gets focussed on something, he would come up with crazy and sometimes ingenious ideas leading to success.

In this case, Naruto wanted to master his newest sealing texts as quick as possible. And like any similar situation with him, certain concepts and principles connected and he came up with the idea of using shadow clones to help accomplish this task.

"Okay lets see... Three books, about three-hundred pages each.. that's nine-hundred. Takes about five minutes to memorize a single page completely... I can make a thousand clones with small chakra reserves that each last about four minutes each. So... Six-hundred clones, which last about ten minutes each, two memorizing a page, and I'll memorize the first book no problem. I'M A GENIUS, YOSH!"

POOF

"LET'S DO IT!," six-hundred voices echoed.

Fifteen minutes later Naruto had his first hangover.. multiplied by six-hundred. His mind not used to such strain caused him to lose consciousness, while the chakra of a certain tenant of his worked furiously to put his melted brain back together again. He would spent quite some time drowning in a puddle of his own drool.

Several hours later, the blonde regained consciousness, with a splitting headache, cursing the creator of the shadow clone technique. He could feel a faint buzzing at the back of his mind, a painful reminder on the importance of dispelling shadow clones one or two at a time. After a few minutes passed he could look in front of him without feeling a sharp stabbing pain in his brain anymore and so, started thinking again.

It would seem that he somehow, despite the stupid way he went about it, managed to recall the ENTIRE book FLAWLESSLY. The book was so deeply ingrained into his mind, it was as if he had a genuine copy of it floating around somewhere in there. He could recall every word, of every sentence, of every paragraph, and from which page they came. Consequently, his skills in sealing, theory wise, had shot up by a large margin. It was when Naruto realized this, that he came to a startling conclusion.

He was awesome.. with a capital 'A'!

The blonde cautiously created one hundred clones each with as much chakra as possible, spread evenly, and had all his clones apply their newly acquired knowledge.

Like with martial arts where you had to do a kata repeatedly to insure you don't lag while performing. The sealing arts were similar. He had the knowledge AND the tools for it, just not the practice. Which is what his clones were there for.

"What the? HOLY SHI-!!"

BOOOOOOOOOM!

All the clones in the clearing winced at that particular clone's painful end, ignoring the small earthquake. Then.. slowly, as one, they all smiled mischievous foxy grins.

Apparently that one clone had finished his seal practice very early, and had decided to see what happened if he altered his seal slightly. Turns out the unstable mix of chakra and seal reacted negatively with one another causing one hell of an explosion.

Naruto was not smart, but he was not an idiot either. He realized the implications of this.

Sealing was a very delicate and precise art. You had to write the seals down perfectly to a T or they would be unstable and, case and point to the newly dead clone, explode. But that is why what just happened is so amazing!

There are only a limited amount of seals known to man, and even less of them are documented. New seals are rarely created because of the instabilities of the dangerous art of sealing technique. Most of the time seal users, with the exception of seal masters, just combined the different seals they knew and hoped for the best. ONE small error and it's over. BUT, with corporeal clones, Naruto didn't have that handy cap. He could quite literally test ANY possible sealing sequence his hyperactive mind can cook up. With any luck, the explosions will be limited to one training ground, and not the likes of a nuclear bomb.

Good thing Lady Luck favored him.

And so Naruto spent the rest of the week memorizing his new books on sealing, practicing those seals so much that they became second nature to him. And lets not forget the few minor explosions caused by his experimentation. But other than clones and the flora in the clearing, none were hurt.

Eventually, after spending a good month with a few hundred clones, give or take a few, Naruto had finally created a seal that allowed the clone it was applied to, to absorb any ambient chakra it touches while channeling chakra to the seal. He had even managed to puzzle out how to paste the sealing array on his clones using hand seals and touching the area where to apply the seal. Many clones had died trying to come up with the hand seals for that. At least the blonde would never committ suicide now. Frankly, he thought it was boring.

The result of the equation? Naruto found out more about old ladies and gossip than he cared to find out, thanks to his self sustaining clones. On the bright side, he figured he'd get a job under henge. He doubted anyone would let a minor work for them. Good thing he was still blissfully ignorant of what lay sealed in his tummy.

So for the sake of building a persona, the blonde 'borrowed'(without asking, of course) some fifty girl-centric novels from the public library and had his clones glean enough information to construct a personality for the one clone that would get a job. A female cover, because he figured he'd take advantage of idiot men using good looks.

So, while his clones did their job of working on the persona of the girl that he dubbed 'Aiko'(Because Naruko seemed too close to home for comfort. He didn't wish to be found out if his persona ever met someone that knew enough of him to make the connection.), he went to visit the old Hokage. Under transformation of course.

* * *

"Good evening Hokage-sama, it's nice to meet you."

"Naruto-kun? Why are you under 'Henge'?" In hindsight, the blonde thought, perhaps he should not have used a contraction in his sentence. It very likely just gave him away.

POOF

"Eeeeh?! How'd you know, Jiji?"

Hiruzen chuckled. "Well, other than the way you strode in here like you owned place, as is with your own character? I recognized your chakra signature."

The blonde frowned, trying to remember where he heard that term before. "Eh.. What's a 'chakra signature', Jiji?"

Naruto cursed inwardly when the Hokage looked at him, eyes twinkling in a way that said, 'I know something you don't!'. "A chakra signature, Naruto-kun, as its name implies, is that distinguishing unique aura of chakra that identifies you as a person. As long as I will remember what your chakra 'feels' like, I'll know it's you."

The blonde gaped, a feeling of incredulity settling in his stomach. This would destroy all his plans! No spy network! No Hiding amongst a crowd of his own henged clones! And certainly no getting a job with a henged clone! The blonde seemed near tears when he asked the Hokage. "I-isn't there any w-way to change your signature or something?"

Hiruzen rose an eyebrow, wondering for a moment why on earth the blonde would seem interested in a Chunin rank skill. Certainly the blonde wasn't planning a prank or something? No, not with the way he was looking. It seemed like someone had just kicked his puppy.. if he had one.. provided the village hadn't already burnt, stabbed and crucified the thing to the blonde's door.

"It's nothing short of impossible to change one's chakra signature, Naruto-kun. However.." Naruto looked up in hope, waiting for him to continue. "It is possible to 'hide' or 'mask' your signature."

At Naruto's questioning gaze he further elaborated.

"You can't just change the way your chakra feels, Naruto-kun. That would be like trying to cut off your face and put someone else's there. It's just not done. You CAN however make it difficult to detect your aura. I say difficult, because it's impossible to completely hide your chakra. You chakra is always there. Nothing short of death would completely hide your signature."

The blonde processed his words when he realized something. "You said you can 'hide' or 'mask' your chakra signature. What do you mean with mask?"

Hiruzen nodded amiably. It seemed the blonde was paying full attention to him, something he rarely did in previous years. "By masking it, I mean trying to get it to fit in with your surroundings. That is, being able to have a feel for the area around you, and spreading your chakra in such a way that you would 'seem' a part of your surroundings. Usually Chunin chose to learn how to hide their signature instead of masking it, and very rare very Jounin bother learning both methods."

The blonde haired prankster beamed at the Hokage. "Last question, Jiji. How do I mask and hide my chakra?"

Hiruzen decided not to ask the blonde why he needed to this knowledge. When he had told the blonde he couldn't change his signature the blonde seemed depressed. He had a feeling if he asked that he might get a very angsty and snarky answer.

"This I can answer, Naruto-kun. I may not be able to teach you, but you just need to understand the theory of this to accomplish it. Hiding your chakra, means taking all the chakra surrounding you, even that on your skin, and eyes and such, and compressing it into a ball in your stomach. You need to make this 'ball'' as tiny as possible in order to decently hide your chakra. As for masking your chakra..."

The old Hokage trailed off, slightly reminiscing his past. Specifically recalling his clown of a student Jiraiya whom had mastered masking his chakra to a level that greatly surpassed both his teammates as well as his teacher. He saw a lot of Jiraiya in Naruto, and only hoped that despite his status as Jinchuuriki, that the blonde turned out like Jiraiya someday. Perhaps not as perverted, but close enough.

"To mask your chakra you'll need to be one with your surroundings Naruto-kun." He held up his hand forestalling Naruto from asking any questions.

"Allow me to explain. What I meant by that, is that you need to be fully aware of your surroundings to the level that you can 'feel' the energies around you, for a lack of a better term. Once you can feel everything around you on a spiritual level, you must take your chakra, hidden or not, and carefully 'blend' it into your surroundings. Think of it as placing a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that fits into the center of an incomplete puzzle. Only that piece's picture does not fit, while the piece itself does. Do you understand Naruto-kun?"

For the first time since the blonde knew Hiruzen, he finally understood why everyone respected the man so much. Truly he was worthy of his title 'The god of shinobi' if he could make such a difficult concept so easy to understand for the boy. He frowned slightly.

"How do I feel the energies around me then, Jiji?"

The old hokage smiled secretly. "Meditation."

That's all he said. But then again, that's all that really needed to be said. So without further ado, the blonde disappeared to his favorite forest clearing, not quite a training ground, and begun working on masking his chakra.

But first, to the library to read up on meditating techniques!

* * *

He had spent a good month with several-hundred of his shadow clones working to meditate and mask his chakra. He'd learnt how to compress his chakra into a tiny ball within the first three days with the help of all his clones. And with their help, received one hundred times as many hours as he spent on meditation. With that much time spent meditating, eventually he became chakra sensitive enough, and thus finally had the concept down to an adequate enough level to not be sensed by ANBU and high Jounin level shinobi.

To test his how skilled he was, he had a clone sneak into the shinobi library, henged of course, and managed to remain undetected until he accidentally bumped into a wooden surface and gave himself away. His clone had quickly dispelled itself, but the deed had been done. His chakra could not be detected, ergo, he could finally start his second life.

Yes, the blonde mused, it was finally time to release 'Aiko' upon the world and see if all the hours he spent building her persona was worth it.

Now that he would soon have his finances covered, he'd be able to start working on becoming a famous ninja like that dead Shisui guy. He realized he'd have to work hard to get the 'Kawarimi-no-jutsu' to be very effective and dangerous enough. Good thing he was the stubborn kind of person that would keep slamming their head into a wall until eventually the wall gave out or their head caved in. And as luck would have it, the blonde was the former of the two.

* * *

AN- Wow, 25 reviews for one chapter after about two-ish days? Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy what I'm writing. I wish I'd get even more reviews. But then again, don't we all?


	3. Chapter 3

The God of Flash

Chapter 3

By ToxicManipulator

* * *

Fully mastering the 'academy three', Naruto decided, was more difficult that he'd first though.

Perhaps having several hundred clones practicing said techniques repeatedly was not the best approach in the way of making progress. Then again, he thought, he should not be that surprised that what he was doing bore no fruit. It was as good as spending several thousand times tying a shoelace with two hands, and not getting any closer to tying the shoelace with one hand, or no hands at all. Maybe tying a shoelace with one's teeth alone(Look Mom! No hands!) would bear looking into?

Naruto shook his head, he was getting off subject. He needed to focus, for Ramen's sake! How could he further improve his techniques? So far nothing new was happening. Wait a minute... 'No hands at all'? The blonde haired prankster frowned thoughtfully. Sealless ninjutsu? Was that even possible?

Suddenly, long forgotten memories of a lecture given by that Dolphin guy(Iruka, as he found out) came flowing into his mind. Dolphin guy had taken care of all the classes for a day because the other teachers had been suspiciously absent one day when the Hokage showed up with creepy torture guy.(His name was Bikini, or Ibiki or something right?)

Dolphin guy had told everyone that despite being 'boring' and 'unflashy' the academy three were deadly when used correctly. He had then proceeded to perform all three the techniques WITHOUT hand seals! How in the nine layers of hell did he miss THAT? Stuff like that were supposed to stick out like his jumpsuit!(Of course, he wouldn't admit to anyone under pain of torture, but he liked wearing orange to blind the people he walked by. Especially that creepy white-eye-guy that checked him out when he picked up his daughter. Perv..)

Now that he thought about it.. Dolphin guy didn't even have to needlessly yell the jutsu like some retarded war cry. He just stood there, got a constipated look on his face for a second, and BAM, instant jutsu! Really, if Naruto hadn't already met his wise advisor, the old geezer, he would have started worshipping the ground that Dolphin guy walked on.

With those thoughts, Naruto created a shadow clone, and dispelled it immediately after. The one-hundred clones in the clearing all started cursing when the information got relayed to them. And thus, they all started trying to do the transformation technique wordlessly. Amazingly enough, after the 'update' an hour later, Naruto had it down pat, and started working on doing it seallessly.

When he had first started his shadow clone training method, Naruto had realized that to truly make progress, the clones would all need to share their knowledge in frequent intervals. And so the concept of 'updates' became an entirely different definition as far as the blonde was concerned. An 'update', was done every hour; at least until he could afford the chakra to do it every thirty minutes. As for what an update was, it essentially meant dispelling ALL the clones(In groups of three, of course. He had learned the hard way waking up in a puddle of your own drool was NOT cool and ninja like.) and then after the influx of knowledge and experiences, he would create another one-hundred clones, then get back to work again.

Time passed, Naruto worked on doing his 'henge-no-jutsu' seallessly, unknowingly increasing his chakra control, but eventually he came to a bit of a roadblock. Despite how hard he tried, he just couldn't do the transformation technique without seals(As it was his first focus). The best he had was with a half-seal. He knew how to do it without seals, and he also knew that he COULD do it. But SOMETHING was keeping him back, he realized. Just exactly WHAT was holding back his progress still eluded the youth.

He decided he would need some advice for this. His 'advisor', the old man, couldn't help him directly, but his teacher certainly could. The academy's month long break had passed and everyone had been assigned a new class and teacher much like in any new year. Strangely enough, his new sensei had been ordered by the Hokage to remain with his class until graduation day. Personally the blonde thought his teacher might be sentimental and might cry like the overgrown dolphin he was if he lost 'his children' any time before graduation.

And so, he went to pay 'Dolphin guy' a visit.

* * *

Naruto slammed open the door to the classroom where he knew his teacher was still busy grading papers. "HEY DOLPHIN-SENSEI!!"

The blonde sweat dropped when he saw his teacher slowly banging his head into a pile of tests yet to be graded. "Eeh? You okay sensei?"

Iruka slowly sat up, trying desperately to get the twitch in his eye under control. After several seconds, in which he spent breathing deeply trying to calm down, he turned a forced grin to his student. Contrary to his fellow teachers at the academy he bore no grudge toward Naruto. In fact, he thought the blonde was interesting enough once you actually got to know him. His pranks were also pretty good and funny.. provided you weren't on the receiving end of said pranks.

He shuddered. He still had invisible scars from where the Daimyo's wives' pet cat, Tora, had disfigured him after the blonde had sprayed him with powdered catnip.

Iruka had only joined the academy as an instructor in recent years after his retirement from the position ANBU Captain. Unlike other cold hearted captains, he genuinely cared for each and every one of his teammates. It was a simple mission gone wrong where he had been the only survivor that lead to him retiring from his previous position, opting instead to take a job that kept him in the village where he could make friends that also held reasonably safe positions.

"I'm fine, Naruto. Thanks for asking. Is there any reason you came to irri- visit me this afternoon?"

The blonde's foxlike grin only seemed to widen at his slip of tongue. "Hey, hey, Dolphin-sensei, I've got questions to ask you!" He yelled, pointing his finger accusingly at Iruka.

Iruka sweat dropped. What was this? An interrogation?!

"Um.. What?"

"Tell me how to do the henge seallessly!"

The chestnut haired teacher blinked slowly, and slowly his jaw began to lower. "Huh..?"

"Sensei!"

Iruka shook his head to clear it, and reassessed the blonde boy. He would not be the first to say the blonde was a talentless idiot, but he also knew he was prone to bouts of creativity and genius. But really, sealless jutsu?! He wasn't a miracle worker, for Kami's sake!

"Naruto..," He said slowly, as if speaking to a child. "You need to be able to use the technique properly first and be able to do it silently before you even begin to THINK of doing it without seals. Maybe you should try something a bit easier first alright Naruto?"

Naruto's cheeks blew up in a huff as he folded his arms irately. "Don't you think I don't know that?! I can already do that! Why the hell do you think I'm asking you, EEH?!"

The chestnut haired teacher sighed, still not entirely believing the blonde. "Alright then Naruto. Prove it, and I'll tell you how to do it seallessly."

The blonde smirked at Iruka, put his right hand into a half-seal. Then wordlessly, with a puff of smoke in Naruto's place stood a perfect copy of Iruka, down the the last detail.

Only his experience as an ANBU Captain prevented Iruka from gaping at the blonde incredulously. He had actually done it! Wordlessly too! And was that a half-seal he saw? Incredible! Was this really the dead-last he and everyone else knew him as?

The orange clothed prankster was now openly smirking at the academy instructor. "See? I told you," he said smugly.

Iruka nodded in response at the blonde, a strange look on his face. "Indeed you did... Alright, you managed to get the technique down to a half-seal. So what seems to be the problem? Doing it without seals is the same as reducing the seals to a smaller number and eventually to a half-seal. I would think you'd have puzzled it out by now."

The sunshine haired youth scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Eh... Well you see, I really DO know how to get it to be without seals, it's just.. I'dunno.. I know how to 'move' my chakra to get what I want, but I can't seem to move it in the exact way I need. It's ANNOYING ME!"

The academy instructor watched the blonde stomp around ranting and cursing everything in sight, even going so far as the blame a black cat that crossed his path several weeks ago and griping about two old ladies with memory problems. It actually looked kind of... cute? He briefly wondered if he was ever like that as a child, still ripe and naive in the ways of the world.

As for the blonde's problem? Well that was kind of easy to guess. With chakra reserves as large his, it would be kind of difficult to control with little prior experience. "Alright, alright. Calm down Naruto. I know what's wrong and how to fix your little problem."

The eerily attentive look Naruto gave Iruka was a horrible contrast compared to his usually lazy and sleeping self in class. He coughed to hide the shudder he felt go down his spine. "Right then.. I'll be blunt Naruto. You. lack. chakra control!"

_Somewhere in tea country, Uchiha Itachi sneezed._

The blonde gaped at Iruka. His expression turned into a glare, ready to start showing Iruka his annoyance. Iruka held up his hands. "Hold on, let me finish explaining, Okay?"

At the youth's nod, Iruka continued. "Okay, think of it like this Naruto. Both your and my chakra control are different. For the sake of simplicity, in this situation you are a bucket and I'm a measuring cup used for baking... Now, tell me. I'm about to bake something, but I need exactly 100ml of water. Which will be better for getting the exact amount of water? The rusted old bucket that has no way of measuring the water? Or the transparent measuring cup that lets you know EXACTLY how much water you have in it?"

Naruto's eyes widened in awe. No one, absolutely NO ONE, had ever explained chakra control to him like that. Before, he had just thought it to be something fancy, involving far to many big words for him to care about. But NOW? Sweet Ramen! Why didn't those bastards ever explain it like that?! Oh he would have revenge alright.. He would make those useless bastards pay! Laxative style!

Iruka looked curiously at the blonde after he had finished his explanation. At first the blonde's face had shifted to an expression of understanding, enlightenment even. And then shifted to one of realization, then annoyance, then his eye started twitching as he glared at nothing. He didn't pay it any mind. He DID however start to worry for his life when the blonde started cackling out loud, twirling an imaginary mustache on his upper lip. He sweat dropped.

"Um, Naruto? Are you... feeling okay?"

The cackling came to an abrupt halt. "Okay? Hehehehe.. Why yes, I'm perfect-hahaha-ly peachy! I'm just happy I finally understand it clearly now!" The glint of madness in the blonde's cerulean eyes didn't reassure Iruka at all.

"Anyway, how else can I get my chakra control real good, Dolphin-sensei? The only one I came across in the library before was the leaf floaty thingy. And it's boring as hell!"

Iruka frowned and handed the blonde a small slip of paper. "Float this on your forehead Naruto. I'd like to see how proficient you are in the leaf floating exercise."

The blonde shrugged, took the paper and slowly it started spinning, faster and faster until eventually it shot off like a cannon into the ceiling. Iruka nodded his head sagely. "As I thought. Your chakra control is crap, Naruto. Keep practicing the leaf floating exercise."

Naruto frowned slightly. "Okay... Hey, sensei, what other exercises can I do?"

The instructor blinked, surprised the blonde wanted even more to work on. He pondered whether or not he should teach the youth the tree walking exercise, but quickly dismissed that idea and opted for something else. "Well... Another academy chakra control technique, though it's rarely taught here and left for Jounin sensei's, is the chakra radar technique."

At Naruto's blank look, Iruka sighed and elaborated. "Instead of focussing your chakra to a point on your body like with the leaf floating exercise, you need to cover every inch of your body in a tight cocoon of chakra, and then draw it into your body, without allowing it to breach the skin. After that you release it, and like a spring, the chakra shoots off in all directions like a sonar. After that you try to feel any responses. If you did it right now, you should receive a response from me as I'm the closest thing with a chakra system."

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Of course... The thinner the layer, and the smaller the amount of chakra you use, the further you will project the sonar once released. This also prevents others from outright sensing you when you project. Because your chakra holds a certain frequency that identifies you as a living being, you should only receive responses from any living creatures or people."

He opened his eyes and left his 'lecturing mode', and turned to the strangely attentive blonde. "Do you understand, Naruto?"

The blonde nodded with a grin, closed his eyes and started gathering chakra all over his skin, trying to put as little as possible. "I'm going to try it right now Dolphin-sensei. Tell me how I'm doing."

Iruka nodded, and sweat dropped as he noticed the clearly visible chakra on the blonde's skin. Kami, how much chakra did he have?

With a sigh, Naruto released his hold on his chakra and created his first successful sonar. He waited for responses. Immediately in front of him he felt a unique blue chakra enter his senses. Iruka's chakra, he noted, gave him what he felt would be a feeling associated with the ocean. He slowly opened his eyes and grinned foxily at his amused teacher.

He opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes widened when he felt another pulse, much smaller than Iruka's hit him. It could only be described as a gentle breeze of wind. Interesting.

Naruto spoke. "Hey, hey, do you feel that, sensei?"

Iruka blinked slightly. "Feel what, Naruto?"

The blonde's face scrunched up into a frown combined with a pout if it was at all possible. "That second chakra. I already felt yours, but a second or two after that I felt another one. I guess about half the academy's distance in that direction," he said, and pointed to his right.

The instructor looked surprised, sent out a sonar pulse of his own and grinned slightly, recognizing the chakra. So the little Hyuuga princess was stalking the boneheaded blonde again? Interesting.

"Naruto, as a ninja you're probably going to get surprised and get killed when you go on a mission some day. This chakra pulse will prevent that from happening. If you regularly pulse and keep it down to an undetectable level, you'll easily be able to pick up if someone is following you, or even preparing to ambush and sneak up on you. I'd suggest you get into the habit of doing it regularly and trying to memorize the responses you get so that you'll know if you're being followed. Alright?"

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. Such an incredible technique! Why didn't he come across it earlier? He would have been able to pick up when a mob of idiots were gathering before they could come within distance of him! Hell, he could sneak around without being caught if what Iruka said was true.

Slowly the world around him faded and in his minds eye a scene started playing. It showed him walking into a typical murder scene wearing a brown trench coat with a cool looking fedora hat. He seemed to be smoking a pipe for whatever reason. The guy in charge looked at him and spoke. "What do you think Detective? It's a pretty standard murder, we can't seem to find anything that points to who might have done this. This might be a lost cause." He saw his dream self lift his hand in the universal gesture of 'stop'.

His head snap into a certain direction, and started running, followed by his fellow investigators. He came across an alley where a man who held a dagger with blood, still fresh, stared in horror as the detective closed the distance and knocked him out with a single punch. "It's him! The body's wound fits that dagger!," one of the nearby men shouted in awe. The head investigator turned to the blonde detective with admiration in his eyes. "How did you know he would be here, Detective-sama?" The blonde smirked. "Se-cret! A good detective doesn't reveal his super cool sonar skills!" Everyone around the blonde bowed to the ground, and two lingerie clad woman appeared out of nowhere and clung to his sides. "Naruto-sama, we've got something to tell you..." He smiled charmingly and nodded. "Naruto..." "Naruto.." "Naruto.!"

"NARUTO!" The blonde blinked, realizing he was staring into space with Iruka shaking him. "Eeeh?"

"Damnit Naruto! Don't scare me like that again. I thought for a moment I broke your brain with what I told you," he said jokingly.

Naruto glared at Iruka. "Shut up, Dolphin-sensei. I was just thinking, is all."

The academy instructor nodded his head dubiously. The look on his face practically screamed, 'Yeah! Suuuure!'

"Anyway, I need to get back to grading these assignments. Why don't you go practice your chakra control techniques. Maybe see who that person whose so close is?"

The blonde nodded eagerly. "Yosh! I'll become a super cool ninja with these badass techniques no problem! I'll see you around Dolphin-sensei!"

Iruka's eye twitched. "Damnit! Stop calling me that you GAKI!"

* * *

Life, one Hyuuga Hinata, decided was a strange balance between good and bad.

Her day had started fairly normally. Wake up, go wake her three year younger sibling Hanabi and go share a bath. Afterwards she'd get dressed and go have breakfast and endure being berated along with Hanabi by her father. Something about being a proper Hyuuga and showing no emotions. She wasn't really paying attention at the time. She was more focussed on what stalk- observation, techniques she would use on her interest Uzumaki Naruto that day.

She eventually settled on using the byakugan 'secretly' again. Idly, she wondered whether or not she should be concerned with the fact that despite school having only been going for several weeks now, half the class seemed to know she spent an inordinate amount of time staring at Naruto.

Shrugging, she decided to focus her mind on other matters. As they say, ignorance is bliss.

She eventually got to the academy, said her bye's to her father when she and Hanabi went to their respective classes. Hinata didn't really know why, but for some reason she had a feeling that she'd be seeing more of Hanabi soon enough. But again, she ignored her instincts in favor of activating her bloodline limit and finding the object of her stalk- observations.

A gasp escaped her mouth when she saw he had run into someone. That someone being her little sister. She creeped up to the corner and kept out of sight trying to hear the conversation.

"Ah, sorry Firework-chan. I wasn't looking where I was running. Here, lemme help you up," he said standing up. Then, to Hinata's frustration, and Hanabi's embarrassment, then blonde pulled Hanabi up with his arms underneath hers and positioned her into an accidental hug. He seemed oblivious to the blush on her face and grinned foxily at her. "Hey, hey, are you okay Firework-chan? You're really starting to look like a firework. Maybe you're sick?" The red flush on Hanabi's face seemed to glow even brighter if possible when the blonde pulled her closer into a real hug and put his forehead against hers.

Around the corner, Hinata was about to rush around the corner and throttle both Hanabi and Naruto, for whatever reason, but managed to compose herself. She walked briskly to the pair and spoke as confidently as she could. "E-e-eto, H-hanabi-Imouto-chan, y-you should b-be h-heading back t-t-to cl-class. G-g-gomenasi N-n-n-n-naruto-k-kun! We should h-head b-b-back to o-our cl-class a-aswell."

The blonde seemed to shrug, smiled once more at Hanabi causing her residing blush to flare up again, and walked in the direction of his class. "Hey, you coming Sunny-chan? We're gunna be late!"

Hinata seemed to flush even brighter than Hanabi had at the nickname. Hanabi noticed and frowned slightly at Hinata. "I saw him first," she said strongly. Hinata narrowed her eyes at Hanabi. "W-what is that s-supposed t-to mean H-hanabi-Imouto-chan?"

Hanabi seemed to grin smugly. "It means, dear Onee-chan, that since I saw him first, he will be my husband. And then we will live happily every after!" Apparently Hanabi had read a fantasy novel recently. "Don't worry. I'll name our first child after you!," she chuckled haughtily.

The color drained from Hinata's face. "N-no! I s-saw him f-f-first H-hanabi-Imouto-chan! Y-y-you c-can't!"

Hanabi's smug grin turned into a smirk. "Try to stop me, Onee-chan!" She turned on her heels and marched of to her own class, already calculating and planning her next move. Hinata didn't like that calculating look and cursed her sibling inwardly, then rushed off to class. Maybe today she'd be able to sit next to HER Naruto-kun?

It didn't occur to Hinata she was being possessive and exhibiting traits of obsessive compulsive disorder.

When Hinata got to class her day seemed to darken a bit more. Naruto was sitting next to that blonde haired Yamanaka girl. She didn't know why, seeing as Ino had a crush on Uchiha Sasuke and competed fiercely with all his other fan-girls. On the bright side, at least the chair to Naruto's right was open. Just as she was about to take the seat Iruka came into the class and told her to sit next to Sakura who sat next to Sasuke. Hinata sighed and took her seat.

The day seemed to progress as usual and passed far too slowly for Hinata's liking, but eventually recess came, which meant she could try to build up her courage and try to spend the lunch break with Naruto.

As she prepared to walk over to Naruto, her plan she noticed, was already shot to hell. He was STILL with that bit- girl, Ino. She took a seat nearby and listened to the two talk underneath a tall tree. Naruto was speaking.

"..and then.. and then..!" He seemed to be busy laughing, while trying to tell Ino something. "..I took the bag of powdered catnip, Tora chasing after me like hounds straight from hell, and I- HAHAHA- I hit Dolphin-sensei straight in the face with it! His face ended up looking like scratching post!" Both blondes burst into uncontrollable belly aching laughter.

Ino's sides were hurting with laughter, and accidentally put her hand on Naruto leg to position herself and prevent from falling from her seated position. While an innocent action, it seemed like a slap in the face to the two Hyuuga 'secretly' observing the conversation.

The blonde girl finished the last of her chuckling. "..Oh man, Naruto. You do the craziest shit! My mum would probably skin me if I did something like that, and my dad would ground me!" She blinked, as if just realizing what she said. "Crap! Don't tell anyone I swore, Naruto. My mom seems convinced 'proper ladies' shouldn't swear. It's annoying, I tell you..."

Naruto nodded sympathetically. "I can honestly say this is the one time I'm not envious of not having parents. No offense Daisy-chan, but curfew's suck big time."

The blonde haired girl nodded, agreeing. Then blinked at her fellow blonde. "Daisy-chan?," she asked amused.

The orange clothed prankster grinned cheerily. "Yeah! You strike me as the flower type of person! So, it's either that or flower-chan. I chose Daisy instead because flower is too jen-.. gin-.. eeeh... whatsat word again..? Ah! Generic!"

Ino rolled her eyes playfully and shoved her blonde friend. "Way to be corny, 'Ruto. It sounds like something out of a cheap romance novel."

Naruto stared at Ino for a moment, before a mischievous grin found way onto his face. "Wait a minute, you actually READ romance novels Daisy-chan? Aren't you a bit too young for those?"

The girl glared at the blonde. "Are you saying there's something wrong with reading them? And why do you sound like you've read them too?"

He chuckled sheepishly. "Actually, yeah I have. I read 'The Park'."

Ino's eyes widened in recognized, and she smiled excitably. "Wow really? I read that one too! It's probably one of the better one's I read!"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, Its got a pretty good story most of the book." His eye twitched slightly and he let out a snort. "Well... It WAS good, until that part where Kento did 'that'."

The blonde girl gaped, and nodded understandingly. "Yeah! I totally agree! And that part where Mizuiro got that gift for Yuki"

Naruto continued "And she opened it and seemed to think the world of it..!"

Ino continued her eye now twitching as well. "Then for some reason, despite that guy having been a complete and utter bastard to her so many times..!"

Both Naruto and Ino then finished their rant together. "They actually get together just like that!"

Naruto blinked at his fellow blonde, and she returned the look. Both burst into another bout of fresh laughter.

A bell rung signaling the end of break.

Once everyone returned to class, everyone assumed their previous seats and the lecture continued for several minutes before there was a knock at the door. Iruka looked up from the chalk board, confused, and opened the door.

At her table, Hinata gasped, her eyes widening in horror as she saw the person entering the class.

Iruka lead the person in while reading a small note and nodded. "Class, this is Hyuuga Hanabi. Apparently she's really advanced for her age and has been moved to this class. Please make her feel at home. Hanabi, take a seat next to Naruto over there. It's hard to miss his eye-melting jumpsuit."

"Hey! This is at the top of the line of fashion Dolphin-sensei!"

"STOP CALLING ME DOLPHIN YOU DAMNED BRAT!"

"STOP CALLING ME BRAT YOU PENCIL PUSHER!"

Iruka sighed and motioned for Hanabi to go take her seat.

As if sensing Hinata looking at her, Hanabi turned to look at her, and smirked pointedly.

Hinata didn't notice the desk crack where she gripped it with her hands. Her day kept growing darker and darker. It was almost at the bottom of the 'ye-olde-bad' meter. She considered for a brief moment to start wearing dark clothes and make-up as of tomorrow.

Finally her horrible day ended. Hinata went home, ate lunch, and went off on her own. Today there was no training and both she and Hanabi were left to their own devices. It took her several hours to locate Naruto. She noticed that he seemed to be heading to the academy, and followed him silently.

Using her byakugan, Hinata saw Naruto speak to Iruka in depth about something seemingly interesting. Hinata cursed, not for the first time, for not having been taught how to read lips using her byakugan yet.

Some time later she noticed him coming out of the class and quickly hid behind a nearby tree. Surely he wouldn't possibly come in this direction and discover her! She quickly swallowed her words and cursed her horrible luck when the blonde came specifically in her direction.

She was about to run off when his hand clamped down on her shoulder and she froze in horror, turning to look into his curious face.

"Hey, Sunny-chan? Why are you here at the academy? Shouldn't you be at home or something?"

Hinata tried to stutter out a response, but unfortunately her words were too jumbled for Naruto to understand. The blonde seemed to take it in stride however. He had heard and learned much about the Hyuuga through his 'spy network'. Apparently they were veritable chakra masters thanks to their bloodline and their unique fighting style.

His eyes twinkled merrily. "Hey, uh, Sunny-chan? You're good at chakra control right?"

Hinata blinked, slightly baffled at the question, but stuttered out an affirmative. Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully and nodded as if making a decision. "Great! Then, then, can you tell me how to practice my chakra control? Please Sunny-chan?"

It took all of Hinata's will power not to faint at the cute and adorable looking Naruto. That pout had to be S-rank with its power, she thought.

She nodded, doing her level best not to faint. "H-h-hai N-n-n-naruto-k-kun. I-i-i t-try to h-h-help yo-y-you."

And so she got to spent ONE FULL HOUR with HER Naruto-kun. She taught him about being able to walk on different surfaces using chakra, and showed him the tree walking exercise as an example. He seemed to perk up and stare at her in awe when she showed him how to do it. And then he spent an hour trying to puzzle it out, while she gave him some tips.

Her day wasn't so bad, she reflected. It had gone from good, to bad, to really bad, to really really good again. Maybe tomorrow would be even better? She pondered what the future would hold, as she walked back to the Hyuuga compound leaving Naruto to his own devices.

* * *

The blonde haired prankster was on cloud nine. He was well on his way to greatness and it was all thanks to Iruka's advice and help, and in part thanks to that creepy Hyuuga girl. He sure hoped she wasn't a pervert like her father. He saw her using the byakugan when he had approached her. He had quickly forgotten that thought when he found out she was a veritable fountain of information.

He briefly considered changing Iruka's nickname from 'Dolphin' to 'Advisor-two', but discarded the idea. That man was intelligent and knew his stuff, but the blonde couldn't let him think he was being easy on him. So thusly his name shall remain Dolphin.

With a shrug he went back to business. That being, working on his chakra control so that he could do henge seallessly. He wanted to get started on the kawarimi soon. A hundred pops filled the clearing, signifying his use of shadow clone. He set 30 to work on the leaf floating exercise, another thirty on the tree climbing exercise and the last forty on his new favorite toy, the sonar technique. He privately vowed to practice that technique to make it second nature so that he'd never EVER be surprised again.

Don't get him wrong. He enjoyed surprises. Just not the painful kind that involved lots of pointy and stabby pieces of metal that cause him to bleed. He also enjoyed surprising others.

That reminded him. Ino's birthday was soon, he supposed he'd have to get her something nice. Out of everyone in the academy, the blonde could honestly say that Ino was probably the only REAL friend he had. They had met one evening while the blonde prankster was relaxing in a field of flowers after a rough day of training. Ino soon joined him and demanded to know why he was in 'her spot'. After much debate, discussion, some hair pulling and poking on Ino's part, they decided on a truce and shared the spot. From then they became fast and thick friends.

They had discovered they had more in common that they first thought. Both were loud and proud. Both enjoyed nature and spending time in it. And much to Naruto's surprise, both hated Uchiha 'bow-down-you-plebeian!' Sasuke. It turns out the only reason she 'publicly' liked him was to toy with one pink haired annoyance. They had added another thing they had in common after that. Both were sly and cunning, shameless when they teased one another and told each of embarrassing stories(usually involving some other party).

One thing however that stood out most between the two blonde loudmouths, was that they spoke their minds. Naruto enjoyed that aspect of her personality the most. Fiery, temperamental and easily irritated Yamanaka Ino, with a mouth to make a sailor blush in shame to boot! Had he been older and hormonal he'd probably be in love with her, he mused.

Naruto stretched and let out a yawn as he tested the Henge, noting it already had less smoke thanks to the tree climbing he did earlier with Hinata. In the form of Aiko, he walked around the clearing inspecting the other clones and observing their progress. Somewhere down the line he caught a clone blowing off the bark of a tree in his direction. He didn't bother moving, the clone should fly right through his head, as he wasn't REALLY that tall.

OOMPH.

What. The. Fricken. HELL?!

The blonde touched his bleeding nose with a frown. The transformation technique was supposed to be an ethereal illusion projected over the body. Whenever said illusion is interrupted by a large object moving through it, it's SUPPOSED to dispell. Not give him a bleeding nose. He created a clone and had the clone touch has face and shoulders, tug his long silky hair. The clone, now wide eyed, dispelled.

Naruto's eyes widened in a mixed combination of shock and awe. His transformation... was real? But, how? He inspected his body and started to get a feel of it. His face was real. As were the feminine eye lashes. The soft silky smooth blonde hair as well. NOT his spiky hair.

He gulped, his hands reached for his chest.

Boobs. Real fricken boobs. Nipples and everything. Naruto in the form of Aiko let out a gasp. These things were damn sensitive.

She inspected her delicate hands with a look of curiosity on her face. Her fingers lacked the usual calluses. She stroked her unusually soft milky skin. Also very sensitive.

She held her breath and returned her hands to her chest area and slowly but gently started rubbing her breasts in slow rotations. Idly, as she kneaded her breasts, Aiko thought how very wrong this situation seemed. One thing left to check. Her hand snuck into her pants, underneath the boxers and felt around for what she knew would be there.

Nothing... It's.. gone?!

Her eyes dilated and slowly panic started to settle into her mind. She patted the surprising soft patch of skin. Her previous 'equipment' had.. disappeared? Aiko bit back a moan when her finger traced a particularly sensitive part of skin.

With a speed she didn't know she had, she ripped her hand out of her pants and stared at it in horror. She shakily tried to cancel the henge.

POOF

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, gripping his package firmly as if afraid it would disappear forever. That certainly was an interesting experience. How on earth was his transformation real? It just didn't seem possible, but SOMEHOW it happened and WAS in fact real.

He shook his and cleared it. Why was he caring? This was supposed to be a sweet finding! The possibilities were endless! Henge detectors wouldn't be able to detect a REAL transformation. He could practically sneak into ANY place with none being any the wiser. A smirk crossed his face. Yeah, life was good.

He realised if he wanted to use the transformation to its fullest potential he'd have to be able to hold it in any situation, no matter HOW stressing to retain cover. He realised that it would have to hold through sleep as well. He nodded to himself.

After creating two clones, and dispelling one immediately afterwards, he sent of the clone to go buy some clothes for Aiko. Formal clothing, non-formal, undergarments, swimwear, the works. If Aiko was going to become a 'real' person. He would have to make her as believable as possible. Even IF it came at the cost of sleeping in female undergarments. He wanted to be the very best, surpassed by none. So for the sake of achieving his dream, he would have to be able to BECOME Aiko and be unrelated to Uzumaki Naruto in any way possible.

He smirked. Yes... things certainly just got very.. VERY interesting.

Now if only he could smash away the scary thoughts of make-up, girly magazines and sleep-overs, then he would be able to go to sleep sane, or is it insane of mind?

* * *

AN- I really surprised myself with this chapter. When I started it I had no idea where to go with it, writers block I believe. But as I sat down, I just started typing the first things that came to mind, and bam, here it is. Tell me what you think. I hope you enjoy. ^^


	4. Chapter 4

The God of Flash

Chapter 4

By ToxicManipulator

* * *

Being poor sucked, Aiko thought as she idly pulled out the rough material of the panty stuck between her butt cheeks. Mentally she cursed her idiocy for spoiling herself by having tried on the silk garments first. True enough, silky undies, and silky clothes, period, were comfy as hell. The only problem came with that fact that said silky clothes were expensive. Very expensive. And so, much to her ire, she settled for the cheaper fabrics when it came to clothing.

The blonde teenager stretched with feline-like grace and threw off the sheets covering her. Oddly enough, despite her previous reservations when she had initially 'transformed', she found being a girl wasn't all that bad. Granted, being leered at by every male within viewing distance made her more murderous that she thought possible. Strangely enough, she instinctively started carrying an old rusted kunai with her. Hmm.. weird. She quickly grew used to the leering though, experience from being Uzumaki Naruto shining through.

Up until a week ago, she had spent the mornings waking up as Naruto(And feeling crept out each time), but eventually practice made perfect when she woke up still under transformation one morning. Of course, waking up to two mounds on her chest was eery enough to make her assume the fetal position for a good several minutes while hyperventilating. She quickly grew used to it at least. Though sitting down to pee still felt a bit weird. She wouldn't admit it aloud of course.

Aiko filled up the bathing tub with water and added some bubble bath. She had quickly developed several creature comforts in her time as a female. A creature comfort she quickly picked up was bathing in a tub filled with the white foamy goodness of 'bubble bath' that she had come to love almost as much as ramen. That, and her trusty little floating ducky.

QUACK QUACK

Her lips curved at the absurdity of it all. Several months ago she would have turned down her lips in disgust at the mere thought of being a girl. But now... Women had it good, Aiko decided. And men were idiots for not realizing that. Having replaced the usual bar of soap with scented soaps and shampoo's spoke volumes of that sentiment. Aiko let out a sigh of pleasure as she slowly worked the shampoo into a lather on her hair. The scent of cherry blossom filled her nose.

The last month had been very productive to the pseudo girl. After her meeting with creepy Hyuuga girl, or Sunny, as she had dubbed the shy girl, she had spent working herself into exhaustion to improve her chakra control. She had yet to attempt to alter 'kawarimi-no-jutsu' opting instead to fully master everything she knew so far.

Naturally, the 'Henge-no-jutsu' had taken a week to completely and fully master. She had swore to learn and master the illusionary technique after she realized she did it incorrectly. She had even gone so far as to have all her clones under 'Henge' at all times, while performing chakra controlling exercises. As for her 'true transformation' as she had dubbed her accidental technique, she kept it on her true body at all times. Practice makes perfect after all. It took three weeks to master it to the point where it would remain active even while unconscious. Oddly enough, the 'Shinko Henge-no-Jutsu' consumed an abnormally small amount of chakra. Much less than the illusionary counterpart.

Through hard work and diligence she had fully mastered the three academy jutsu, as well as the shadow clone and her own technique. They could all be performed without seals and without words as focus. Another achievement was her ability to make five-hundred clones that could last a full hour. A large improvement in contrast to her usual one-hundred per hour. Thanks to the extra clones working on mastering techniques, she had gotten them down to an instinctual level with the help of mini-simulations.

The mini-simulations usually involved her walking through the forest and sometimes even through Konoha, while clones would attempt to surprise her at odd times with ambushes. She, thanks to the sonar pulse technique, in turn would react by using the kawarimi in such a way that it made it seem like she got hit, when in reality she didn't. She achieved this thanks to using the 'bunshin' seallessly on the target replacement(logs in this case) before escaping.

As of tomorrow, she would finally get to work on personalizing the 'kawarimi-no-jutsu'. Today however, she was taking off to relax, as she usually spent her Saturdays. While drying herself off with the newly purchased fluffy towel she wondered what she would do for the day. Aiko had long ago gone and gotten civilian identity papers made. Her full name was Uraomote Aiko.(Uraomote, as it perfectly described who or what she was. An opposite, of Uzumaki Naruto.) She was aged eighteen, still no solid job, having been doing small minor chores while searching for something that called to her.

Aiko had quickly discovered that there were things available to her, that would not be so had she been much younger. Already, the blonde teenager had tried most of the perks. From going to a bar and getting drunk enough to puke, to going to a club and dancing with the other girls. For some reason unknown to her, the leering from males seemed to increase when she got so close to other girls. She even gave a karaoke club a go, and found out from the reaction of her audience she had quite the singing voice.

Today she was going to have a go at gambling. Quite frankly she didn't really expect any more other than losing the small amount of money she planned to spend there. After all, with her bad luck in life with how most of the village despised her male counterparts' existence, she reasoned she had very very bad luck. Unknown to her, somewhere amongst the divine, Kami and Myouri(Lady luck as she was also known.) giggled at her silliness. She was in for QUITE a surprise.

The buxom blonde quickly got dressed, deciding to wear a form fitting casual orange dress that showed off her shapely legs. She quickly slipped on a pair of purple sandals, and a purple jacket as it seemed to be quite windy outside today. Strangely enough, after time spent with Yamanaka Ino, both Aiko and Naruto had developed a new love for purple almost as strong as their love for orange. Even stranger, Ino had started wearing some orange in her choices of clothing. Apparently the two blonde loudmouths had unknowingly influenced one another.

After a quick breakfast of ramen and several apples for variety, the blonde bombshell left the small apartment and headed for the nearest casino.

Idly, she wondered what job she would settle for in the future.

* * *

"Hello Miss, how can I help you?" A pretty blonde asked Aiko.

Aiko smiled at the young lady working at the credit exchange booth. "Hello, I'd like to have this converted into game currency please."

After Aiko received the new currency she went off exploring the strange building. It seemed fairly large from the once over she gave it. She saw a curved table where players were sitting around someone who dealt cards to them. The blonde teenager spent several minutes observing the table and learned how to play this 'poker'. Finally, after a bit of waiting, one of the chairs opened up and she joined the game. She played several round, not really winning or losing until she grew tired of the game, and in a fit of insanity, put everything on the table for the two cards she had yet to examine.

In a distant part of her mind she noticed the entire table went silent at what many would consider a stupid move. Slowly one after the other at the table matched her. Some even smirked mockingly at her, knowing it would be an easy win.

Aiko's mind once again wandered to the dilemma of finding a job to finance her creature comforts. Clothing, soaps and shampoo's didn't come cheap. And what irked her, was that female clothing cost more than male clothing. Absently she noticed that she had won the round, and put in everything again, without looking at her cards, allowing her mind to wander again. She didn't notice the odd and gleeful looks she received.

She needed to find a job that paid well, but required little experience. She didn't have a degree behind her name, so the real high paying jobs were out. She was annoyed to find out you actually needed to study several dozen books involving certain subjects, and a grade as proof to get certain jobs. Quite frankly, she thought it sucked. She didn't notice she won the round again. Once again she absentmindedly placed all her winnings in the table, this time only two others matched her. The looks of awe and jealously went completely over her head.

But what kind of job would fit what she was looking for? Working at a bar, while having the advantage of hearing things through the grapevine, was not the kind of career she wished to follow. Her spying network was made for that purpose, and she had seen how the girls working at a bar had to put up with lecherous old men groping them as they served drinks. The blonde teenager briefly considered a job as a waitress in a restaurant, but it held the same problem as a bar, if only on a smaller scale.

Awareness of her surroundings returned to Aiko when a large meaty hand clamped onto her shoulder. She looked up with a 'deer caught in the headlights' expression on her face. The man gripping her shoulder was huge and built of layers of muscle. "You're coming with me, Miss."

Aiko frowned at his commanding tone. "Why? What for?"

The large male sneered at her. "You're cheating somehow, hell you're barely even trying, so you'll have to leave."

For the first time since her mind had wandered Aiko noticed her huge pile of chips, she had easily multiplied what she started with by a hundred. She gaped and nodded at the man. "Sure, let me just go cash in my winnings and I'll leave."

The muscle bound man frowned. "I don't think so." He started pulling her away from the table, but Aiko had different things in mind. With a little bit of chakra enhancing the speed of her leg unknowingly, she downed the man thrice her size with a kick in his jewels.

"Bastard! I won fair and square! You dare steal from me?!"

Several more muscle bound men came at her with the intent to disable her. She made quick work of them, putting them in a world of pain similar to the first guard. Aiko growled at the dozen downed men itching to start breaking bones. A soft gentle hand settled on her shoulder and she tensed, ready to attack. She relaxed when a soft feminine voice spoke into her ear. "Sssh, calm down. You will receive your winnings, this was a misunderstanding it seems."

Aiko turned around and came face to face with a shapely brunette with curves in all the right places. The woman smiled serenely at the blonde teen. "Come. I'd like to discuss something with you over some tea."

She turned to one of the downed men. "Kuzo. I want you to get her chips cashed in and bring the money up to my office."

When the man nodded with a wince, the brunette smiled at Aiko and took her hand gently. "Come."

Aiko remained silent as she allowed the young brunette to lead her to what looked like an enclosed private area. Inspecting the brunette revealed her to be about five or six years older than her. She wore a soft silken Kimono, a mix of cerulean blue and emerald green. Her long silky hair hung to her lower back. She had two unique marks on each her cheeks.

The young woman indicated Aiko to take a seat and joined her to her left. The blonde pseudo girl still couldn't believe what had happened. She had actually won something. But, how? She had the worst luck in the world! The fates hated her and she was their doormat! This wasn't supposed to happen! For a brief moment she felt ethereal arms pulling her into a soft hug and heard something breathily whispered into her ear, but couldn't make out the words. She shivered. Okay, that was seriously scary.

"Okay. I believe introductions are in order, hm?" Aiko nodded, albeit nervously and eyed her warily. The young woman seemed to giggle at Aiko's state and pulled her into a gentle hug. "Relax, would you? I'm not going to bite you silly. You did nothing wrong, quite the opposite in fact."

The blonde teenager blushed when she felt the brunettes soft lips brushing her ear. "W-what do you mean?"

Releasing the blonde from the hug, the brunette idly removed a stray lock of hair from Aiko's face. "I'd like to offer you a job."

Aiko's eyes widened in surprise. "Eeh?! A job? Are you kidding me?! I could've just robbed and cheated you in that table downstairs, you know!"

The other woman giggled again, causing Aiko to absently look at her soft ruby red lips. "Trust me, I would have known if you cheated. I hire several ninja to keep an eye on all tables for cheaters, and I had some seals placed at all the tables to let the dealers know if chakra is used. It's pretty standard procedure for any casino operating with so many ninja's abound."

Aiko nodded thoughtfully. "So... what kind of job exactly did you have in mind then?"

The chestnut haired woman smiled warmly at Aiko. "I have been observing you from the moment you entered my casino. I guess you could say you just caught my eye, sounds silly doesn't it? But imagine my surprise when I noticed how you learned how to play a game you had never seen before merely from observing it, and then winning against such odds that it just seems unlikely."

She took one of Aiko's hands with two of her own and softly stroked it, her smile still present. "I'd like you to be one of the dealers here. With luck like yours, you'll doubtlessly broke any gamblers going to your table. All the better for the casino, hm?"

Aiko frowned thoughtfully. "So you want me for my 'luck'?" She gasped when the other woman pulled her into another hug, letting out a giggle. "Don't be silly. That wasn't the ONLY reason I'm doing this. You have a unique personality that intrigues me. The way you stood defiantly against a dozen men twice your size and even beat them speaks much of your character... So.. you interested?"

The blonde teenager frowned thoughtfully before smirking and nodded. "Alright. I'll give it a shot."

The brunette clapped hands excitably. "Excellent! Now then, shall we introduce ourselves?"

With a nod, the blonde introduced herself. "Uraomote Aiko, pleased to meet you boss!"

Aiko's new boss smiled and gently patted her leg. "No need to call me that Aiko-chan. I hope we'll become good friends, hm? And my name is Inuzuka Rin. Call me Rin-chan, and the pleasure is all mine, I assure you."

The pseudo girl grinned. "Okay, Rin-chan. So when do I get started? And at what times do I work? Do I need to get a uniform? If so, where do I buy one? How do I do my job? Will I be taught how to-" She got cut off when Rin put a delicate finger to her lips, smiling at her. "All will be answered soon enough, Aiko-chan. Don't worry, I'll tell you everything you need to know later. But right now, I'd like to get better acquainted with you. I have a private mini- hot spring leading through my office. Let's get you out of those clothes and into the spring, hm? I'm sure we have much to tell each other."

The blonde's eyes widened as a blush started appearing on her face, just as she was about to voice her protests, Rin gently took her hand and lead her to the spring. Her mind was on autopilot. How the hell would she get out of this one? This wasn't supposed to happen! Sure, she got a nice comfy job like she wanted, but at what cost? The thoughts of being able to buy those silky clothes she really wanted and perhaps even moving into a new apartment kept her from protesting. Idly, she noticed Rin was already naked and was busy removing her own clothes. Slowly and sensually. Sweet Ramen she had soft hands! Huh.. Why was her face so close? She seemed flushed too for some reason.

Inwardly Aiko shrugged and relented. What's the worst that could happen? It was only a little bath after all.

Some time later Aiko would swallow those words.

* * *

Fwoop

CRACK!

"Ouch..." Naruto mumbled, stepping away from the tree he just rammed into face first. He spat out a loose tooth and glared at the tree. He'd been trying to figure out how turn the kawarimi into a speed technique for almost two weeks now, and still had no success. He lost more teeth than he knew he had. Luckily they grew back after a day, for whatever reason.

He punched the tree irritated. "Damnit! Why can't I get this?!"

To say Naruto was currently annoyed was an understatement. He had tried every possible variation of the technique, or at last he thought he did, and still was no closer to surpassing Shisui's technique. With a final glare he turned tail and walked off to go clear his mind. What was he doing wrong? He couldn't come up with an answer.

Several long minutes later the blonde found himself in his favorite 'thinking spot', and sat down. The field was filled with a variety of different colored flowers.

Compared to the huge leaps of progress he had made when he first started off, the blonde felt disgusted with how slow progress was now. It felt like he had hit a barrier of some kind that he couldn't cross. No matter what he had tried he couldn't seem to make any progress at all. It frustrated him. He grit his teeth and clenched his fists, what was he doing wrong?!

He blinked when he sensed a chakra signature enter the clearing. He recognized it as Ino, but paid it no mind. Maybe she wouldn't notice him?

He started to go over the kawarimi mentally. The kawarimi worked by projecting a dense blanket of chakra over yourself and the target you wanted to swap locations with. What many people didn't know, was that while you and the target swapped locations, it didn't involve any movement on either parts. It was a jump, nothing physical. Despite being a simple E-rank technique, and considered simplistic by almost everyone, what few knew was that it was actually a time and space manipulation technique.

That blanket of chakra that covered both the user and the target was there for a good reason. It served as a cache of sorts. It 'remembered' what you and what the object was. Once the technique is performed, the two objects in said technique get turned into hundreds of millions of invisible chakra atoms. They travelled through a 'pipeline' of sorts to one anothers' location, and once done, that 'blanket' of chakra 'remembers' how you're supposed to look, and reassembles you so fast you don't even realize what's really happening. But that's where Naruto's problem came. He couldn't figure out how to make that pipeline 'one way'. He only wanted to travel in ONE direction, that being where he wished to appear, and not allow anything OTHER than himself to go through that pipeline.

He could get the dematerializing part down, he could travel through the pipe, but for some reason, a large pocket of air still wished to travel to the opposite direction from where he came from. It was that pocket of air that quite literally propelled him chaotically into trees all the time.

Naruto froze when he felt two arms wrap around his stomach and pull him flush against a lithe chest. Now sitting between Ino's legs the blonde haired prankster blushed when her head rested on his left shoulder. "What's wrong 'Ruto? You looked constipated back then."

The blonde rolled his eyes at the jab. Only Ino could mock him and sound concerned at the same time. A talent she boasted that she had inherited from her mother. "It's pretty late Daisy-chan, shouldn't you be home?"

He felt her arms move upwards slightly in what he could only guess was a shrug. She nestled her face into the crook of his neck and cuddled him. She had started doing similar things since the day she first gave her fellow blonde a hug. He had given her a cute plush fox doll for her birthday, and she had thanked him with a hug. Since then she had realized that the blonde just seemed to generate some kind of addictive warmth. And hugging him made the feeling even more pleasant. Naruto didn't seem to mind, so Ino helped herself to the oversized plushy, as she had dubbed him.

"Seriously now 'Ruto, what's up? You're quiet. Too quiet. So either you murdered someone and don't know how to dispose of the body, or you can't figure out how to do something involving ninja stuff."

The whiskered blonde grinned wryly. She knew him too damn well. He couldn't even look her into the eyes without her immediately knowing he was either lying to her or trying to hide something. One look is all she needed and she could almost read his mind. It was kind of scary sometimes, he mused. That didn't mean he didn't appreciate her though. She seemed to genuinely care for him if the affection she freely gave him was anything to say. He was really fond of the blonde girl. Not even his new friend Firework-chan, or Hanabi as she preferred being called, could cheer him up as easily as Ino did. Then again, Ino had the advantage of having known Naruto for much longer.

"I'm having trouble with a technique I'm working on. Don't worry, I'll figure it out.. somehow."

He felt Ino respond by tightening her hold on him slightly. "C'mon. Just tell me what the problem is. I might just give you some useful advice."

The blonde whiskered boy sighed, and grinned when the lithe girl snuggled even closer if possible. "Your parents are gunna scold you if they ever find out you do this Daisy-chan."

Ino rolled her eyes. "No they won't. I even asked them why everyone seems to hate you so much. They said something about you being a hero and sacrifice. They didn't say anymore though. That's besides the point though, you just changed the subject."

Naruto snorted, hiding a chuckle. He could practically 'feel' Ino sulking behind him as she poked his stomach. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you. Just stop poking me."

When the poking stopped, the blonde boy stretched his back. "Well... It's like this. I'm trying to move down a path in one way only. But the path is made for two things to go in different directions. I need to make this path only work in a way that prevents the second thing from coming in my direction, and only allowing me to go down the path... I'm not making sense am I?," he asked impishly.

Ino's eyes were wide in wonder. Slowly she shook her head, not caring that the action caused her cheek to rub with his. "No. Actually, somehow I understood that. So what, you're trying to make a one-way road or something right? But it's a path made for two ways? What have you tried so far?"

The whiskered boy blinked slowly. "I've tried to prevent the other thing from going down that side of the path, but somehow it seems to keep slipping through. I've tried everything!" He grumbled irately.

The blonde girl smiled foxily. "Really? Everything?," she drawled in a questioning voice. "I'dunno. If I was in your shoes I'd just block the road with a wall or rock, or trick the other thingy into thinking it can't go down the road. Like a 'no-entry' sign or something."

Though she had said it jokingly in an attempt to cheer up her blonde friend, the words left a mark. Naruto's eyes widened in wonder. Why hadn't HE thought of that? Such a simple solution! Easier said than done, of course, but at least now he had a direction to work in! He snickered. Slowly it turned into a full blown joyous laughter.

Ino stared oddly at her fellow blonde. Had he finally cracked under the hatred of the villagers? She gasped when he turned around and pulled her face into his chest in a heartfelt hug, all the while still chuckling. A lot quicker that she would have liked, she started blushing. The young girl found it strange that when she usually initiated the hugs, they felt nice and warm with a hint of peace in them. But for whatever reason, whenever the whiskered boy pulled her into his arms she felt faint and overpowered by the previous sensations. Her eyes glazed as her lips twitched into a soft content smile.

"Thanks Daisy-chan. You just gave me a great idea on how to get my technique to work. I really owe you big time for this, huh?"

From her place against his chest Ino snuggled closer. "Yeah, you do. I think I'll hold on to that favor for a rainy day, 'Ruto."

"Ino-chan!"

Both blondes' eyes widened when they heard the deep masculine voice. As one they turned to the approaching Yamanaka Inoichi. From her seat on Naruto's lap Ino paled when she recognized her father. A deep scarlet rosy blush appeared on her face.

"Daddy?," she asked, her voice sounding meek.

Inoichi's lip twitched slightly as he approached the pair of blonde's who had made no move to separate. The last several months his little girl had changed in more ways than one. First it started when she stopped talking about that Sasuke brat 'twenty-four seven'. Another change was when she started asking him to teach her more clan techniques and train her. Ino had surprised both him and his wife Hikari when she started taking her studies and career as a future Kunoichi seriously.

Slowly but surely as the months passed, even more changes occurred. She became more outspoken, didn't hesitate to beat Shikamaru and Chouji to a pulp when they visited for sparring matches. Then, one day on her birthday, she came home with an oversized orange fox plushy and beamed at them. She hadn't slept a single night without holding her new plushy thus far. From that day, the changes became more constant. Slowly she started adding orange to her wardrobe, instead of wearing only purple. Every day once back from the academy she practically seemed to glow, even through the training sessions where he put her through the grinder.

Both had been confused as to what was causing the changes and couldn't think of anything. It was only when she started telling of tales of how one Uzumaki Naruto would share his exploits of pranking with her. Though they couldn't be entirely sure, they had a slight idea that Naruto might have been the one to blame. It seemed ironic that the boy had given her a fox plushy of all things, considering what was sealed within him. It was when she asked them why everyone seemed to despise the young boy, that their suspicions were confirmed.

Their innocent baby girl had developed a crush on the whiskered boy. They had briefly wondered how long the crush would last, and even made some bets with their friends of the Akimichi and Nara. Inoichi had been sure that the crush would blow over given enough time.

Those thoughts were demolished and erased from existence when he approached the two blonde loudmouths. They seemed so comfortable in each others' presence, hence the reason Ino hadn't left Naruto's lap yet, or why his arms still comfortably held her around the tummy.

The looks on their faces weren't that of someone who were worried about being separated. He knew and recognized them a mile away. Both he and his wife and sported the exact same looks when Hikari's father had discovered the two of them getting frisky in a park. That look of horrible realization that they were discovered and would be teased relentlessly and mercilessly because of it.

His lips twitched in a grin. "Well, well, well... So this is where you've been disappearing to Ino-chan? A boyfriend already? Wait until your mother hears of this. She'll be SO proud."

Aha! There! Finally the whisker faced brat had the decency to blush too! Now to milk this situation for what it's worth. "You'll have to bring him home and show him off to your mother. She will probably be disappointed you didn't get together with Shikamaru, but I'm sure she will get over it."

Ino's look of shock quickly changed to that of incensed fury. "WHAT?! What the hell made you think I'd EVER go for that no good lazy-ass bastard! I'd sooner die from slipping on a wet floor than have ANYTHING to do with him! He's always whining and bitching about how troublesome it is to even stand up, so how the hell would he even know how to function properly in a relationship! Tell him 'Ruto!"

Naruto sweat dropped, and turned to look at Inoichi. "Uh, no offense to you Yamanaka-san, but I'll have to agree with Daisy-chan. And I'm not sure if he'll ever leave the 'girls are troublesome' stage. In fact..." Here he blinked as if remembering something. "From the way he falls asleep so easily in class, he'd probably fall asleep on his first date."

Ino folded her arms and smirked smugly at Inoichi's face. Inoichi could only gape. Dear Kami, there were TWO of them! They already had nicknames!! He thought Ino was bad enough, tolerable yes, but still. But TWO?! His eye twitched slightly. His attempt to embarrass them had failed completely. Stupid blonde's, he seethed, unaware he was insulting himself.

He shook his head and cleared it. "Right. Well.. It's time to head home Ino-chan. It's almost dinner time. Would you like to join us for dinner Uzumaki?"

The blonde shook his head. "I've got a clone at home making some dinner Yamanaka-san. Maybe another day?"

Not entirely surprized at the clone comment, seeing as he heard from the Konoha grapevine, Inoichi smirked slightly. "Fine. You will come over for dinner tomorrow. I'd like to get to know Ino-chan's boyfriend."

Naruto sweat dropped. "Uh.. We're not really dating, you know?" Ino chimed in with a grin. "Yeah! We're best friends!"

Inoichi rose an eyebrow as if saying, 'Yeah? So?'

The blonde haired prankster's eyebrow twitched slightly. "We're eight years old Yamanaka-san. I haven't even gone through puberty yet. That book I read said it wont happen for another few years."

The male Yamanaka sulked, having lost an opportunity to tease his daughter and scare the boy.

"Fine, fine. You're still coming over for dinner tomorrow though. Ino-chan, head home, I'll catch up with you in a moment."

Ino tilted her, slightly confused, but shrugged. She closed the distance between her and Naruto and give him a hug that lasted several seconds before turning to go home. Inoichi smirked at his blushing daughter.

When Ino had left the clearing, the older blonde turned to Naruto with a frown. "Thank you, Uzumaki."

Naruto gaped incredulously at the man. "W-. wait, what?!"

Inoichi chuckled. "I don't know what you did to my daughter, kid, but you changed her. In a good way. Before her change she spent very little of her time training, and didn't take being a Kunoichi seriously. The last few months though, she's been working hard, coming to myself and my wife for training..." He seemed to trail of with a distant look in his face.

"You don't know how happy it makes me feel to see her taking her training so seriously. I love my daughter very much, and I'd hate to lose her on her first real mission. This new attitude of hers will make sure she has a fighting chance at least. And for that, I thank you."

Naruto blushed at the praise, seemingly embarrassed. "Uh.. I'm glad I could help Yamanaka-san."

Inoichi smiled at the whiskered boy. "Good. My daughter is happy Uzumaki, and I love her most when she is happy. You wouldn't make her sad.. right?," the blonde asked, a strange tone to his voice.

The orange clothed prankster's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Well, yeah. I like seeing her happy too."

The Yamanaka elder nodded and released a sizable amount of killing intent, scaring the shit out of Naruto. "See that she stays happy then, Uzumaki. If I find out you ever hurt my precious little angel, I'll show you WHY exactly I was Konoha's best torture and interrogation specialist back in my day. I expect your presence in my home tomorrow for dinner. See that you show you up."

That said, the older man disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto's breathing returned to normal when the older male had left. "What the hell was that?" He shuddered. He thought for a moment Inoichi was actually going to kill him. He vowed to make Ino the happiest he could possibly make her. He didn't want to face that man's wrath. He had a feeling he would carry through with his threat.

Unknown to Naruto, this chance meeting with Yamanaka Inoichi would lead to him being the desire of many women because he'd unconsciously learn to respect all women... To some degree at least.

With a shrug, the blonde turned and headed back to his training ground. He had a new idea to try out thanks to Ino's advice. The blonde chuckled. Soon.. soon he would surpass that dead Shisui guy. He was well on his way to making his own personalized speed technique.

The whiskered boy seemed to walk with a bounce in his step to his training grounds.

* * *

AN- Alright, this chapter was very difficult to write. But I finally managed it! Enjoy. ^^


	5. Chapter 5

The God of Flash

Chapter 5

By ToxicManipulator

* * *

Fear had never really been that great a factor for the blonde haired prankster.(Which was why he usually was more concerned over trying to prevent damage to his clothing.) For some reason, any injuries he received usually were all gone the following day, which almost entirely numbed his fear of injury. But for the first time in his life, Naruto truly felt fear.

He did not fear death, oh no, he lost that fear quite a while ago thanks to the experience he gained from dying shadow clones. Been there. Did that, done that. Yeah. His fear stemmed from the question of what Yamanaka Inoichi could hypothetically do to him. The guy used to be Konoha's best torture and interrogation master after all.

The blonde was nervous. A very unusual trait for him, seeing as he usually did things by the book(One he figuratively wrote and named 'The Book of Pranks.'). His usual reaction to any situation was to jump head first into it, and hope to Kami he didn't get dismembered and eviscerated in the process. While brash and stupid, this method almost ALWAYS worked for the whiskered boy. It's that 'almost' that made him reconsider his usual course of action this once. That, and the creepy look Yamanaka Inoichi gave him right before he body flickered away.

Swallowing the lump he felt in his throat, Naruto rung the doorbell twice. As he waited for the door to be answered, he briefly considered turning tail and running the hell away in hopes of being as far away from Ino's crazy father as possible. He found it ironic actually. Whenever faced with an angry mob or pissed ninja he would scoff in the face of danger. However, now... Now, when about to be confronted by an overprotective father, the blonde prayed to all the deity's above that cared even a tiny fraction for his existence to help him survive the night unscathed.

The door opened and Naruto was greeted to the sight of a beautiful woman in her late twenties. Her eyes, while sapphire blue, held the same fiery and passionate emotions of Ino's eyes. As he studied her further, he realized Ino had inherited her soft platinum blonde hair from her mother, as well as her general facial structure. The older woman seemingly smiled an infectious smile, which Naruto easily returned. Another trait Ino received from her. "Hello, you must be Ino-chan's friend? It's nice to finally meet you, Naruto-kun. My daughter is always talking about you."

Naruto tilted his head to the side slightly surprised. "Huh? Why would she do that? I'm no one special."

A light laughter greeted his question. She smiled teasingly at the blonde and playfully tussled his hair. "I'm going to have to disagree with that Naruto-kun. She is quite smitten with you, despite her obliviousness."

"Huh?" The blonde prankster was quite confused. Smitten? Was that another way of saying best friend?

He was brought out of his thoughts when she chuckled at him. "Don't worry too much about it, Naruto-kun. Come in, come in! Ino-chan has been fidgety all day. I think it may have something to do with you."

Naruto nodded and entered, making sure to put what he read about manners to good use. It wouldn't do to piss off the parents of his best friend. "Thanks for having me over Yamanaka-san. I hope I'm not being a bother? Your husband didn't really give me much of a choice in coming."

Hikari frowned when she heard that. Did Inoichi threaten the poor boy like he always did with other boys? Honestly! That man was much too overprotective! Although, Hikari thought, she'd be damned if her daughter didn't have Inoichi wrapped around her little pinky. She was brought out of her thoughts when they entered the living room and she barely noticed a purple blur fly at her guest.

"'Ruto-kun!" Naruto didn't have much warning before he was glomped by Ino and fell face first to the ground in a tangled mass. He let out a groan trying to regain his bearings. His fellow blonde loudmouth had her arms wrapped tightly around his back and her face burried into his nape as she snuggled him. "Uh.. Daisy-chan? Could you please let me get up?"

Both blonde loudmouths heard an amused chuckle behind them. "Try to behave tonight Ino-chan. Even if it IS difficult for you."

From her spot on Naruto's back the young girl stood up with a huff and glared at her mother. "What's that supposed to mean?! I'm always well behaved!" Right next to her stood Naruto, trying and failing to hide his grin. He muttered, "You call swearing like a sailor good behavior?"

Naruto winced when Ino elbowed him in the stomach, neglecting to notice Hikari's lips twitching upwards and her eyes sparkling mischievously. "Dinner should be finished in twenty minutes, children. Why don't you show Naruto-kun around, Ino-chan? I'll call you both down when dinner is ready."

The blonde haired prankster didn't get a word in edgewise before he was pulled away by Ino. They spent several minutes walking through the home, as Ino showed her friend around. Naruto noticed that Ino's parents seemed to share her love for flowers or nature in general. Must come with being the owners of a florist. Eventually when the little mini-tour finished Ino dragged Naruto into her room and showed off her greatest trophy. A dartboard. With Sasuke's picture on it.

Of course, the opportunity to throw sharp pointy objects at one Uchiha Sasuke's face was much too hard to resist for Naruto, and so he joined Ino in a game of 'Blind the Emo'. Extra points were received when you hit his eyes.

Sasuke's picture only last several games before it became unrecognizable, after which they did something else to amuse themselves.

"Hey, hey Daisy-chan?," He asked some time later. "Hmm?" Ino sat snuggled next to him on a purple Bean bag chair. They were busy playing what Ino called 'video games'. A creation Konoha's merchant sector had imported from Kumogakure, the most technologically advanced of the hidden villages.

"You ever wonder how those guys in Kumogakure make stuff like this?" It was something that just seemed to bug the whiskered blonde. This game they were playing involved racing with objects with wheels called 'cars'. Stuff right out of the imagination, and which didn't exist in the world.

"They don't," she answered absently as she crashed into Naruto's orange car. Naruto pouted at Ino. "What do you mean they don't?! Where do stuff like this come from then?" The blonde girl giggled at the sulking boy. "I asked daddy about that. He said they come from another world or something. They use seals to bring them to this world."

Naruto's eyes widened in understanding. "You mean like summoning?" The platinum haired blonde nodded with a grin as she completely wrote off Naruto's car. The boy gaped. "HEY! That's cheating!"

The purple clad girl giggled. "Not in this game! So, I didn't cheat."

Naruto glared playfully at Ino. "Did too."

Ino rose her nose in a mock arrogant way in the air. "I did not!"

"You did too! Just admit it!"

The platinum blonde haired girl stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at Naruto. The boy would not take this hands down of course, so he took the only action that he knew would be successful in getting back at her. He tickled her, mercilessly.

Ino's eyes widened as a grin quickly appeared on her face. Not short after that large peals of laughter escaped her. "Hahahahaha!- St-stop it 'R-Ruto! Hahahahaha!" Naruto smirked. He was meticulous in his work of tickling her, making sure to memorize the most ticklish spots and exploit them. As he tickled her all over, her eyes started watering all the while still laughing. A grin threatened to split his face as Ino writhed underneath him, having long since stopped moving.

He frowned, and poked her side playfully. She squirmed and let out another giggle. "A-alright, I g-give! Just stop, my sides hurt, 'Ruto-kun."

"Ahem." A cough interrupted the blonde duo, causing them to look up as if caught in the act of a crime. Yamanaka Inoichi stood at the doorway, his eyebrow twitching madly at the sight of Naruto pinning Ino to the floor. "You'd better have a good reason for being on top of my daughter like that, Uzumaki," he spoke in a cool voice. Inwardly he was already planning where to hide Naruto's mutilated body.

Ino shoved the stunned Naruto off of her and jumped Inoichi in a hug. "Daddy you're home! It was terrible! Naruto thought I was cheating when I crashed his car, and then, and then he tickled me to death because he didn't believe me!"

Yamanaka Inoichi was by no means someone to jump to conclusions and make brash decisions. Experience of needing plenty of patience with stubborn captives helped in that regard. He was the pinnacle of a textbook shinobi whenever he did his work. His veteran shinobi habits were hardwired into his mind and difficult if not impossible to lose control of. Of course, when involved with his daughter said habits were shot to hell. The only words his mind registered from Ino were 'terrible', 'Naruto' and 'me'. He also mistook the tears of joy and laughter on her face as something else.

His mind quickly processed those three words, ignoring whatever else she had said. Terrible? Naruto? Me.. her? Naruto, terrible, her... Naruto was terrible to her?! That no good brat made her cry! He'd kill him!

"You brat! You dare hurt my precious angel and make her cry?! I'll skin you alive and throw you in a tub of acid!" Naruto yelped and hid behind his fellow blonde friend, trying to escape Inoichi's wrath. Just as the older man was about to throttle the boy, a frying pan connected with his head and he fell to the floor in a heap of pain.

"Yamanaka Inoichi, don't you DARE harm that poor innocent boy! They were playing an innocent game and you took it the ENTIRELY wrong way! Get down to the dining room NOW!" Inoichi winced under the glare of his wife. "B-but honey, he hurt our little angel and made her cry!"

The temperature of the room dropped several degrees. "Husband.. unless you want to sleep on the couch tonight, I suggest to get going. You're looking much too deep into things. He tickled her, nothing more."

Inoichi sulked, and headed out of the room feeling thoroughly whipped. Hikari grinned smugly as Ino silently cheered her on. Naruto stared at her in a dazed wonder. Just when he thought he'd never meet someone as cool and strong the 'old man', this pretty lady comes along and disproves him!

"Yamanaka-san...", Naruto said in a very serious tony of voice. Both the platinum blonde females looked at him curiously. Naruto brought his shaking fist up, his fringe of hair shadowing his eyes. He looked up and beamed at her, adoration clear in his eyes. "You're sooo cool! Not even old man Hokage measures up to you! You're my new hero!"

Hikari grinned and playfully tussled both Naruto and Ino's hair. "Why thank you Naruto-kun. Dinner is ready. I want you two to go wash your hands and come down."

When she left Naruto shot Ino a mock betrayed look. "I can't believe you nearly got your dad to kill me.", he sulked.

Ino giggled and pulled Naruto into a hug. "Don't worry too much about it, 'Ruto-kun. He won't hurt you. Not with mom threatening to make him sleep on the couch." Naruto snickered and returned the hug, unknowing of how that would affect Ino. "Alright, I forgive you. C'mon! I wanna see if your mother's food is as good as you say it is!" He let go of the hug, and headed for the door, not noticing Ino's dazed and flushed look.

As she stood alone in the room, she quickly shook her head to clear it. As she left the room, still blushing, she briefly wondered how to get her friend to hug her more.

* * *

Dinner at the Yamanaka household was a rather silent affair. Well, for the first ten minutes at least.

"So... Uzumaki..", Inoichi started, his voice rumbling with hidden emotion. Ino and her mother silently stopped eating and observed the interaction.

Naruto put down his fork and looked up curiously. "Yes Yamanaka-san?"

Inoichi smiled disarmingly at the blonde, his eyes calculating. "So you're Ino-chan's friend huh? Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Me and Hikari are quite curious about you."

The whiskered boy nodded warily. What was this guy up to now? "Yeah. What do you want to know sir?"

The male Yamanaka's eyes glinted as he smirked. "Oh.. I don't know.. Things you like and dislike. Your hobbies and dreams? Or maybe... YOUR INTENTIONS toward my little angel!!" He jumped up from the table towering over the blonde boy. He seemingly snorted steam out of his nose as he glared at the whiskered child.

WHACK

Naruto and Ino winced as Inoichi fell to the floor nursing a new frying pan bump. When he got back into his chair, he shrank under Hikari's withering glare.

Naruto shrugged when Hikari had finished glaring at her husband and turned to the him encouragingly. "Uhm.. Things I like? Ramen definitely! And.. I guess I like figuring out how stuff works. From seals to ninjutsu, anything really. I also like Daisy-chan, and not getting dismembered by her scary father."

Inoichi shrank away again when both Hikari and Ino glared as one at him. Naruto smirked at the cowering man. "I dislike Uchiha-teme." Here he his hands reached into the air as if strangling an imaginary Sasuke. "I also dislike the fact that no one will tell me why more than ninety percent of the village seems to hate me. Though I have my theories..."

Inoichi and Hikari shared a serious looked with each other for a brief moment. Hikari asked the blonde, "And what are your... theories, Naruto-kun?" Naruto shrugged uncaringly. "Well... Either my parents were mass murdering maniacs or terrorists that killed babies for their own fun, because everyone is always calling me a monster child." Both elder Yamanaka's winced. They were good friends with Kushina and Minato, and knew them very well before Minato's death and Kushina's disappearance.

Naruto continued, not having noticed their reactions. "Or... I'm Kyuubi's reincarnation or something." This time Inoichi and Hikari choked as if struck. Inoichi's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What makes you think that Naruto?" Had someone broken the third's law? If they had, he would take over Ibiki's duties and come out of retirement if only for a little while.

The blonde scratched his head thoughtfully. "Weeeell... There's the fact that some of the mobs that used to try to kill my on my birthday's called me 'demon fox' and 'fox brat'..."

Inoichi started sweating nervously. "That isn't concrete enough to make an assumption on Naruto.."

With a nod of agreement, he continued. "Yeah I know, but it's only part of the puzzle. Next there's my strange ability to always heal very fast. I only found out recently in a medical book that it's not exactly normal for people to regrow teeth as much as I do.. In one day no less. I've probably lost over two hundred teeth with training accidents."

Hikari chuckled nervously, waving her hand dismissively. Ino started frowning thoughtfully. "It could be an emerging bloodline for all you know, Naruto-kun."

Naruto nodded. "I thought of that too, so I sent some of my blood anonymously to be tested for a bloodline through the academy. It tested negative. Anyways, another reason is my sweet whiskers!"

Ino giggled. "Honestly 'Ruto-kun! I thought they were just cute birthmarks!"

The whiskered boy rolled his eyes playfully. Still not having noticed the pale older Yamanaka's. "And lastly, theres that freaky seal on my stomach whenever I channel chakra! It's so biiiiiiig and complicated and stuff! I can't even recognize an eighth of the stuff on it! The most I can tell is that it has a similar pattern to pocket dimension seals used for storing and sealing away stuff..."

Inoichi and Hikari were frozen in horror when the blonde mentioned the seal. Had he been playing with it like a toy?!! Naruto scratched his chin thoughtfully. "So logically, according to that seal, either I'm the Kyuubi reborn, or it's just sealed in me. Though that's just silly, I mean why would the fourth do something like that. He killed the Kyuubi after all... Right?"

He froze and paled slightly when he saw the strangely solemn looks on Ino's parent's faces. His eyes widened as his hand touched his stomach. "Shit. It's sealed in me, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid so Naruto-kun..." All the Yamanaka's and Naruto turned to face the new voice. Naruto blinked, slightly surprised. "Eeeh?! Jiji! What the hell are you doing here? I know you said you had children and grandchildren, but I didn't know it was the Yamanakas! Shouldn't you be in bed sleeping by now, old timer? It's kind of late."

Everyone sweat dropped at the blonde. Trust him to make light of a serious situation. They quickly cleared up that slight confusion on his part.

Hiruzen cleared his throat. He had prepared this speech for years for the young blonde and taken into account the possible psychological damage it might do to him. Well.. here goes nothing. Hopefully all those months spent on the speech would prove fruitful. "Naruto-kun. I'm sorry I haven't told you sooner. I was afraid how you would react to the fact that a fox demon is sealed into you..." His voice turned grave. "But do not worry. The demon is sealed away tightly and can't harm you in any way possible, nor can it influence your actions... The fourth made an incredibly hard decis-"

He trailed off when he noticed Naruto and Ino standing off to the side chattering inanely. Naruto was busy speaking, making unnecessary and wild hand gestures. "Hey, hey, you know what would be cool? Growing a sweet fox tail!" Ino nodded rapidly and added her own two cents, eyes sparkling childishly. "Yeah! And fox ears too, that would be so awesome! You'd be like a super ninja! Hearing stuff miles away like the Inuzuka and almost having a third arm with a tail!"

Hiruzen's eyebrow twitched irrately. "NARUTO! Were you even listening to me?!!" Naruto blinked, turned to the Hokage and tilted his head to the side. "Eeh? What do you mean?" Hiruzen gaped incredulously. "Aren't you the least bit concerned over the fact that a mountain sized demon fox is sealed in your belly?"

Naruto shrugged and patted his stomach. "Not really. Though there is one thing i'd like to know," he trailed off, his voice serious and eyes hidden behind the shadows of his fringe.

The old man rose an eyebrow. He wanted to know something? He must want to know why the fourth did it, and who his parents were. He sighed. He really wanted to reveal who Naruto's parents were, but alas he couldn't. Minato had too many enemies to be safe for comfort. He would have to lie to the poor boy and tell him he didn't know them... He prepared for the question as Naruto opened his mouth to speak.

"What kinda cool things do I get from having the fuzzball sealed in me?"

Hiruzen sighed and answered. "I'm afraid I don't know who your pare-" His eyes widened. Wait what?! He wanted to know something as inane and stupid as that compared to possibly knowing who his parents were?! He didn't even care that he was a Jinchuuriki! All those months of time spent on that speech! WASTED! Inwardly he cried pitifully. He could have used that time to peek on girls at the hot springs!

He coughed. "Uh.. right. From what has been determined after the seal was examined, it has been concluded that nothing serious will happen..."

Naruto frowned. "Nothing?"

Hiruzen nodded. The blonde bit his lower lip. "Not even a tail suddenly sprouting from my tailbone?"

The sandaime's eyes rose slightly, but didn't comment. "No, Naruto-kun."

"Foxy ears?"

"No."

"Sharp foxlike claws?"

"Fortunately, no."

Naruto visibly sulked. "Aaaw man! Not even laser beam shooting eyes? Nothing?!"

By now the two Yamanaka adults and Hiruzen were staring incredulously at the young blonde.

Hiruzen shook his head in the negative. Naruto growled. "Damnit! That sucks! What's the point of having a big ass fox demon sealed in you, if you don't even score stuff like that!?"

The old man shook his head, amused. Still the same old Naruto. "Other than an increased chakra capacity and greater stamina and endurance.. I don't think any of those attributes you mentioned will appear, Naruto-kun."

He cracked his back lazily. "Well, I best be off. I'm sorry for interrupting your dinner like this Inoichi-kun, Hikari-chan. I won't keep you any longer."

Hikari smiled warmly at Hiruzen. "Don't mention it Hokage-sama. Good night." He nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Inoichi and Hikari turned to the two loudmouth blondes staring back at them curiously. Inoichi sighed, closing his eyes, and spoke to Ino. "Ino-chan, I know you might be scared of Naruto for having the Kyuubi in him, but-.."

He stopped speaking when he opened his eyes and was treated to the sight of Ino caressing the whiskers on Naruto's cheeks with a look of awe on her face. His eyebrow twitched. "INO!"

The young girl turn away from Naruto and looked curiously at her father. "Yes, Daddy?"

The elder Yamanaka male sighed, and rubbed his tired eyes. "What do you feel for Naruto now that you know what he holds in him?"

Ino smiled cheekily at him. "He's still my friend Daddy. And if you hurt him I'll tell Mom and feed you laxatives!"

Hikari grinned eerily at Inoichi as she came back from the kitchen to fetch the last few dishes. She pulled a frying pan out of nowhere and winked almost TOO cheerfully at him. He shuddered. His wife was even scarier than Uzumaki Kushina had been...

Inoichi sighed, and grinned weakly at the foxy boy. "Why don't you stay the night Naruto? Ino-chan has been bugging us to have a sleep over for some time now. Best get it out of her system, hm?"

The boy shook his head sheepishly. "I don't think that would be a good idea Yamanaka-san. I don't want to take advantage of your hospitality and be a burden. I'll be off now-"

Naruto winced when two hands settled onto his shoulders and clamped on tightly. He heard Hikari's voice behind him. Her voice held a creepy tone that he didn't like. "Now, now Naruto-kun. You aren't a bother at all! Isn't that right, Inoichi-kun?"

Inoichi just nodded mutedly, too afraid of having to sleep on the couch to answer verbally. Hikari beamed at him as her eyes glinted creepily.

"See? So with that out of the way, you'll be staying for the night Naruto-kun. 'Unfortunately' we don't have an extra bed or futons so you'll have to share Ino-chan's bed with her." She failed to mention there was an empty room which could be turned into a guest room in several minutes thanks to a bed sealed away for safe keeping. When Inoichi wanted to protest she silenced him with a glare.

The blonde boy protested. "But, but I dont have any clothes to spend the night!" Hikari nodded thoughtfully. "You're still young Naruto-kun, so your build is about the same as Ino-chan. You can borrow a pair of pajama's from her. Now get going you two. I'll get a bath running and expect you to bath together before bed."

Ino, who had been silent up until now blinked. "Eeh? What do you mean 'together' mom?! He's a boy!" Hikari patted Ino's head patronizingly. "Now, now, Ino-chan. You're both still young and small enough to share a bath. You'll save water this way. Now scat! I've got things to discuss with your father."

As the two children left the room, Inoichi couldn't help but shiver at the foreboding feeling that filled the room as only he and his wife remained. He felt a chill run down his spine as Hikari turned to him with a deceptively innocent grin. "So.. Inoichi-kun... What's this I heard of you threatening Naruto-kun yesterday?"

Inoichi paled in horror, his eyes widening in fear. Only one thought ran through his mind as Hikari grinned eerily at him.

'Oh shit.."

* * *

Later that night Ino and Naruto lay in bed on their backs, their faces still flushed scarlet after having seen each other nude. Ino grew tired of the silence first. "Hey.. 'Ruto-kun?" The blonde in question grinned cheekily. "Since when has it been '-kun'?" From where she lay, Ino huffed. "Shut up, blondie."

Naruto grinned and stretched lazily. Ino's silk pajama's were pretty comfortable. He mourned over the fact that he had decided to save up money through Aiko to buy a new apartment first before getting silky clothes. "Yeah, what did you want to ask Daisy-chan?"

The platinum blonde girl turned on her side and gazed at Naruto. "Do you get the feeling mom is up to something sneaky?"

Naruto tilted his head and nodded. "Now that you mention it, she DID seem really suspicious.. Like when she conveniently brought us a blanket for while we were playing games," he pointed out. Ino nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. The camera she used to take pictures of us was kind of a big give-away too. I wonder what she's up to?"

The whiskered boy shrugged, his eyebrows knitted in confusion. "I think... I think it's blackmail or something. The old man did that once when one of his ANBU did something silly in his office. He wouldn't tell me what blackmail was though."

Ino sighed resigned. "We'll have to figure it out some other time 'Ruto-kun.." She yawned sleepily. " 'Mmmm tired," she said sleepily.

Naruto let out a yawn of his own, turning away from Ino and curled up ready to sleep. Geez. Why did her yawns have to be so addictive? "Alright. Good night Daisy-chan." He felt Ino shifting on her side of the bed, no doubt getting the plushy he gave her to snuggle with for the night. He froze when she positioned her small lithe body to his back, wrapped an arm around his tummy and rested her head into his nape. "Night 'Ruto-kun..."

The blonde couldn't help the blush when he felt her lips brushing his neck. How did she make him feel so warm and tingly inside? He'd have to ask her some time, he reasoned. But for now, he'd enjoy the pleasant sensation. He sighed and melted in Ino's embrace letting the sandman take him to dreamland.

Unknown to the blonde duo, an hour later the room's lights turned on and a figure entered. A flash of a camera later, made the figure leave after turning off the lights again.

Hikari grinned on her way back to bed. The two children were still naive and innocent now.. But a few years from now when puberty kicked in she would be merciless when she pulled out her new collection of 'blackmail' on them.

Her creepy chuckle made Inoichi whimper as she slid behind him and hugged him possessively.

* * *

AN-And there we go, another chapter! Just a few quick notes for those curious of the previous chapters..

-The possible Ino/Naru pairing is not yet solid. They might end up together, or they could end up with other people. It depends on how to story flows, and a bit on what you people think. (That's a hint to review by the way. ^-^'')

-Just to clear a few things up, there won't be a harem, nor will Naruto in his Aiko form 'fall in love' with any boys or stuff like that. I don't have anything against the femNARU genre. It's just that it creeps me out when he falls for men in transformation.

-Aiko won't develop as a character more than an employee of the 'mysterious' Inuzuka Rin. There will be yuri later with Rin and 'mysterious kunoichi'. No smut or lemons though. The most you can expect out of this fic is fluff and the occasional light, and I stress the word light, limes and sexual innuendo's and insinuations.

-As for WHY there wont be lemons... Well, quite frankly I suck ass at writing a decent lemon scene. ^.^''

I'm not comfortable enough at writing the emotions involved with them satisfactorily.


	6. Chapter 6

The God of Flash

Chapter 6

By ToxicManipulator

* * *

Naruto had once been told by a wise, wise man, that true strength came from the will to protect that which you cherish. Of course, he wasn't really paying the old guy much attention at the time. People tend to ignore those that walk around yelling Armageddon with cardboard signs proclaiming the end of the world approaching.

Though Naruto didn't pay it much mind, his subconsciousness burned those words deeply within himself.

Perhaps it was the odd twinkle within the vagrant's one remaining eye(He might have had two, now that he thought about it. He was dressed eerily similar to a pirate at the time.). Or perhaps it was that kindly aura that most all old geezers seemed to share. Or.. or... It was just that strange narcotic substance he was puffing and blowing into Naruto's face at the time..

In retrospect, the flying and singing bowls of ramen might have given it away. That, and his stolen wallet and clothes when he next regained sobriety.

But, despite the events that followed the blonde's short little trauma(Nooooo! Gama-chan left me! Why Kami-sama, why!!?), he eventually looked past the incident and realized the truth in the wizened old vagrant's wise words.

This is what lead to the blonde's current predicament. Ino had swiped a Yamanaka family jutsu scroll and wanted to master it, hoping to impress her parents.

It was left unsaid, that she wanted an increase in pocket money. Her parents usually seemed to celebrate whenever Ino had mastered a particularly hard technique. Therefore, she incorrectly assumed that mastering a very, VERY difficult technique(Which required a strong framework), could help her get that increase in pocket money.

Naruto's role in all of this was quite simple. He was, much to his horror, Ino's guinea pig.

That poor ill-fated bastard.

"'Ruto-kun! Stop being such a big baby! It's pretty easy from what I read in the scroll."

Naruto winced from where he sat in the small hidden forest clearing. The last time Ino had called something easy, they had destroyed an entire forest clearing. In hindsight, teaching Ino seals was a very, very bad idea. She just didn't seem to have the knack that Naruto had for it.

The whisker faced boy had started questioning his sanity when he admired the big flaming mushroom of an explosion. Ino started questioning his sanity when he muttered something about 'world' and 'burning'. The glazed look in his eyes didn't help any.

Apparently Naruto was a pyromaniac at heart.

"Eh.. I don't think this is a good idea Daisy-chan. Shouldn't you be asking your father for help with something like this?"

The aqua eyed girl's cheeks puffed up as she frowned at her friend. "That's exactly the reason I'm asking for you help, 'Ruto-kun! I want to surprise daddy!"

When the orange clothed boy still looked reluctant, Ino pulled out the big guns. Pout? Check. Teary eyes? Check. Pitiful whine, betrayed expression and needlessly clinging to the target? Check, check and check.

Naruto grimaced when he looked at Ino again. Damnit! She always did this when she didn't get her way! And what's worse, he always relented! He sighed, and made a small prayer mentally. Hoping against all odds that he wouldn't end up brain dead or something.

"Alright.. fine.."

Inwardly, Ino smirked; it worked like a charm. Outwardly she smiled at Naruto and hugged and thanked him respectively.

"Great! Let's get started then. Just sit down, and I'll do the rest."

The boy nodded and sat, letting out a sigh. "What does this jutsu do anyway?"

The young girl looked up from the scroll and blinked at the boy owlishly. "Oh, I haven't told you yet? Oops, sorry," she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Anyways. Daddy said that sometimes you get people to interrogate that know mind tricks on how to hide sensitive information so well, that they think they really don't know. This technique supposedly clears up the memories."

Naruto nodded, then tilted his head to the side questioningly. "So how would that work on me though?"

Ino grinned slyly at Naruto. "I've got a theory that you're suppressing some of your memories or mind somehow. You're a lot smarter than you seem Naruto. Even if you are a moron most of the time. Just look at how good you are at seals! Not even Sakura, the smartest bookworm in our class can figure out seals beyond the basics."

The boy scratched his head confused and stared at Ino with a blank look. What on earth was she talking about? He frowned and thought deeply, trying to understand what Ino had implied. After a minute his eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Wait, wait, wait. You mean this jutsu will make me smarter?"

The young girl nodded and shared a grin with Naruto. "Alright! What are we waiting for?! Do it, do it. C'mon Daisy-chan. Hurry up!"

"Alright, alright. Calm down, whiskers."

Naruto's nose scrunched at the new nickname. She had started calling him that weeks ago since they had both found out about the Kyuubi being sealed in him. Though Ino said it was a fitting and cute nickname, he detested it. It sounded too... girly. But try as he might, he couldn't get Ino to budge on the subject, so he just ignored it. Maybe he'd grow to like it, much like he did with his first nickname? Hah! And pigs fly!

As Ino began explaining the procedure of the jutsu to him, Naruto's mind started drifting and his vision blurred as he mentally saw a scene happening. He was walking through a very busy street when suddenly a meteor started falling from the sky to the village.

While the people around him started running around and panicking, the blonde stood with fierce determination shining in his eyes as he eyed the approaching comet. Men in black suits arrived in those strange cars he saw in one of Ino's weird 'Science Fiction' movies. They all wore black shades and shiney leather shoes. As one, they pulled out chair sized metal tubes and fired what he recognized from that movie as rockets and lazers at the comet.

None of the rockets or lazers did anything to the rocket. The men in black suits started panicking, running in circles and screaming about being too young to die. Naruto walked to the front of the group with slow steps, still eyeing the comet and ignoring the calls of the tuxedo wearing men to run.

The comet was getting closer, and closer. One-thousand feet. Five-hundred feet.. One-hundred feet... Ten feet...

Just as the comet was about to hit, Naruto lifted up his right arm and the comet stopped in place, and slowly floated to the ground. He smirked at the gaping people around him as they started cheering madly at him. One of the suit wearing men approached him with a large smile and shook his hand. "That was amazing, sir! Tell us, how did you do such an incredibly amazing feat?"

Naruto ran his hand through his hair causing some of the women nearby to swoon and blush. "With my incredibly incredible intelligence I was able to THINK hard enough and stop that comet with my thoughts alone!"

Once again everyone cheered, and out of nowhere two lingerie clad blonde girls appeared at his arms. "Naruto-sama! We've got a reward for you for saving us all!"

Naruto grinned at them, his teeth sparkling like those two green spandex freaks he had seen some time ago. "And what is this reward, ladies?"

As one, they grinned sexily at him. "Naruto-sama. We're going to -blrrrbl-"

The blonde male frowned. "Sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you?"

"Naruto-sama. We're going to -blrrrbl up-"

"What?!"

"NARUTO! WAKE THE HELL UP!"

The blonde blinked stupidly as he realized he had let his mind wander as Ino spoke. He grinned sheepishly. "Eheheh... Sorry, Daisy-chan. What was that?"

Ino let out a long suffering sigh. "Try to pay attention will you? Anyways. It's rather easy on your part. All you need to do is sit and look pretty while I run through the seals and aim the jutsu at you. So DON'T MOVE. Okay?"

At his nod Ino took a deep breath and stared determinedly at Naruto. She started running through the hand seal sequence.

As she did that, neither of the two blondes even for one second considered what side effects would happen with the nine tailed fox sealed within Naruto.

There was a flash, and a scream pain.

"NARUTO-KUN!"

* * *

DRIP

DRIP

DRIP DRIP

A miserable groan broke the silence. Through bleary eyes, Naruto saw his surroundings were very dark, damp and dreary. The terrible trio of d's. What was this place? Hell?

It didn't look like how he envisioned hell... No people chained to walls while their torturers stood eating ramen in front of them. Just some cold and damp sewer. With lots of weird pipes.

What was he doing before he got to this sewer...? His eyes shut as he massaged his temple. "I... can't... remember? Who.. am I? Where.. am I? And why am I here?"

Standing on wobbly feet, the boy wandered the darkened halls, keeping to the ebony black wall on his left. He tried recalling anything from his memories. He remembered... A kind old man patting him on the head and telling him something. His words, he could not remember... A brunette pony tailed man with a scar on the bridge of his nose yelling at him about dolphins...? A spiky blonde haired male taking him from the arms of a sleeping and exhausted red haired woman. In her left arm lay another baby wrapped in pink.

"What?" He bit his tongue as tears welled up in his eyes as he saw what could only be described as a massacre. Bodies lay everywhere. What was strange, was that they all had their eyes cut out. As he wandered through the bloodied street he came across a tall raven haired boy cutting people down as they neared him. He gasped as the teen set his eyes on him. He could do nothing but stare at the hypnotizing pinwheels in his eyes. The eyes seemed almost... sad? He gasped as the teen disappeared and his vision darkened. As he succumbed to darkness he heard the teen whispering to him. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. But I'm afraid you can't know of what happened tonight. It is too soon, and I can't afford to let my plans fall in shambles now... Not when I'm so close.."

He shook his head. As he recalled that vision, some parts of it seemed blurry. Almost.. as if he could only remember small snippets out of it all. He cleared his mind of those thoughts, and kept wandering down the halls, hoping to seek a way out of the sewer.

CRUNCH

He froze, and looked to where his foot had stepped on, and broken something. It looked like a small piece of a broken mirror. Pieces, actually. He had just cracked it into two when he stepped on it.

The boy bent down and picked up the pieces, finding nothing out of the ordinary with them. He frowned when he felt his hands gently pulling to each other.. Almost magnetic... He put the two shards of glass together, much like a puzzle, and winced in pain as his mind was assaulted with images of what he thought were memories.

He saw the same baby wrapped in pink handed to that red haired woman from before along with himself. He saw the exhaustion clearly in the red headed woman's face, and yet.. she smiled serenely at him and the other child. 'You're both beautiful... Natsumi-chan... Naruto-chan...'

Naruto gasped as the vision ended. On his knees and panting, he realized what had happened. Those shards were fragments of his memories. He fingered the now repaired surface of glass in his hand. It would seem, that if he wanted to know what was going on, that he would have to find his other memories and piece them together.

As he walked down the long seemingly endless hallway he found more pieces and shards of his memories. He joined the shards as he came across them, and soon realized something very interesting. Wherever he was headed, where his most recent memories. All the memories he had received so far, were when he was much younger.

He saw himself grow up in an orphanage under the care of reluctant caretakers. He had wondered briefly what had happened to the red haired woman and her child, but had quickly left those thoughts behind in favor of those more recent. Many times he had seen himself scolded sometimes for doing the most foolish of things, and sometimes for doing something he had thought just.

His early childhood was not all that bright, he reflected. Somehow he knew what he was seeing was unfair and wrong. But what could he do about it? It had already happened, after all.

He saw himself sitting on a swing in a park looking on enviously at other children and their loving parents. He longed so much for a family to call his own, he even dreamed of one day being surprised by mysteriously missing clan members or relatives, but none ever came.

The boy saw his first run in with the more aggressive kind of people in the poor sector of Konoha. The man had clearly been drunk. The drunk was knocked out by a masked man before he could be harmed.

His first experience with the wonder known as Ramen, and how he had forgone any healthy diets his caretakers had suggested to him in favor of eating only his noodles. His first set of unique clothing from a remorseful looking clothing shop owner.. So that's where the orange jumpsuit came from.

He saw his light in the form of pranks when a girl with tattooed cheeks and three young puppy dogs tricked him into wearing a pink colored jumpsuit.

The gentle white eyes of a tall ebony long haired male treating him to an Ice cream. The man leaving and returning to his two daughters and wife playing in a sandbox in the park filled with parents and their children.

A grey haired cyclops of a man playfully tussling his hair and handing him a spare bento on a park bench. The lanky male softly explaining how life was difficult for many people. And asked the blonde to strive to become strong and never give up hope and always walk forward but never look back.

A green spandex wearing male urging the young blonde into running a hundred laps around Konoha everyday with him, with a boulder on his back. The spandex wearing male being chased away by an irritated long purple haired woman in a cat mask.

A frowning greying old woman called Utatane Koharu gently scolding him to eat his ramen at a slower pace inside a ramen stand, and an amused looking greying old male called Mitokado Homura looking on.

The blonde kept walking down the hall, scouring every square inch of space in search of his memories. He searched with a vigor comparable to a thirsting man stranded in a desert. He wanted, no NEEDED, ALL of his memories. And so, without much notice of the passage of time, the blonde unknowingly neared the cage of his prisoner.

He finally entered a gigantic lowly lit room. He took no notice of the cage nor of the mountain sized fox that lay sleeping. He was a man, eh.. boy on a mission. He swore to himself that he would find the remaining shards of his memories. He had quickly realized that the many shard fragments had formed a very large mirror that he carried with great care.

Minutes or hours or days had passed since he started scouring the mammoth sized room and finally reached and end to his mirror. Looking at the square sheet of glass, he noticed one of the edges had one piece missing. His head swung in all directions trying to locate the last shard, and eventually after much searching, he found it.. Underneath the log sized furry tip of one of the Kyuubi's tails.

The boy grinned triumphantly as he rose the shard into the air, and walked off towards where he left the mirror outside the cage. He took no note of the shard's oddly off orange coloring in comparison with the soft blue of every other shard he had found.

The last piece of the puzzle connected.

Naruto's eyes shut tightly in pain as a huge influx of memories invaded his mind. It felt like hours, no, days spent going through the many memories. At some point in time he realized he was on all fours and screaming in pain.

Eventually the many flashing memories slowed down, and eventually came to an end. The boy sighed, relief filling his being. He remembered... everything. He couldn't believe how much he had forgotten during the course of his small life.

With a grunt he sat up and opened his eyes. Sapphire blue eyes met sapphire. His eyes widened in surprise.

"AAAAH!"

He scampered back in fear and finally got a better look at what he saw in front of him. This person had spiky blonde hair, cerulean blue eyes, a tanned skin. He wore a forest green militaristic uniform with a dark black beret on his head. His face was set in a cold stony mask of indifference.

"You finally awoke I see." His voice had remained completely neutral and didn't give away a single inflection of hidden emotion.

The blonde forcibly shoved his fear and nervousness to the back of his mind and spoke with as much bravado as he could muster. "W-who the hell are you? A-and what are you doing in my mind?"

The other blonde showed his first sign of emotion as a cold ruthless smirk graced his face. "Who am I? Why I would think that pretty obvious, boy. Why not take a guess?"

Naruto's eyebrows knitted in confusion as he stared at the surreal clone of himself. The guy gave off a very uneasy feeling to the orange clad child. It felt like he could kill you without a shred of remorse or pity in a moments notice. His eyes widened in fear. "K-k-kyuubi?!"

The whiskered child jumped into the air when the his doppelgänger suddenly let out a harsh bark of laughter. " HAH! The KYUUBI? Are you RETARDED? No, don't answer that, moron, it was a rhetorical question."

Naruto quickly grew annoyed at the harsh way he spoke to him. "Hey shut the hell up! Who do you think you are calling me a moron?!"

He quickly regretted his words when the doppelgänger had quickly disappeared and reappeared grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into the wall. He froze in fear when he locked eyes with the other blonde. He felt his heart hammering in his ribcage at the sheer fear he felt filling his being. The doppelgänger brought his face close to Naruto's and whispered to his ear. "First lesson, maggot. Respect me, and you'll live more pleasantly.. Disrespect me.. And I'll make sure to break every bone in your body.. slowly. Am I understood?"

The doppelgänger released his grip when Naruto nodded shakily. "As for who I am.. I'm an echo of you, of sorts. Remember that last piece of the mirror of our memories you found? Did you notice that its color seemed a bit.. off?"

The whiskered boy frowned and tried to recall that moment. He nodded slowly. Now that he thought about it. It did seem strangely unique in comparison to other shards. He had been too elated to care of its consequences at the time though. "Yeah. What was that about?"

The echo sighed. "Where did you find that shard?"

Naruto blinked. "Oh. That's easy. I found it.. underneath.. the kyuubi's.. tail." He paled in horror.

The other blonde smirked. "Good. I can see that you realize that shard was affected by the Kyuubi. Now, knowing that, how do you think I came into existence?"

When the whiskered child shook his head, his echo sighed in annoyance. "Listen, and listen well, boy. I will not repeat myself." When the smaller blonde nodded fearfully, hearing the edge in the taller blonde's voice, the conversation continued. "The Kyuubi's chakra is sentient in a way. It probably has something to do with the fact the the Kyuubi is a force of nature. That chakra leaked into that memory shard, and with the chakra came that sentience."

Naruto's eyes widened in understanding. "So you ARE the-"

SLAP

The orange clad boy shivered as he looked into steely sapphire orbs. "No. That 'sentience' took the memories of Uzumaki Naruto into account. But because that shard was not similar to the others it would not co-exist without a purifying process of sorts happening first. We, are that very purifying process. We, both exist as two sides of one being. You, emotionally attached to all that is yourself and your being, Uzumaki Naruto. And myself, emotionally detached to all the memories that we share. We are two opposites created by our mind in hopes of creating a balance. Perfection of soul and mind. Spirituality and noesis. Yin and Yang, if you will."

The blonde gaped. His counterpart had used so many big words and sounded so smart. And what's even more strange, he actually UNDERSTOOD what he said. "W-what? I understood all the words you used? B-but, how?"

The counterpart rolled his eyes. "I already explained it, fool. Two conscious entities of one whole. We represent the same being. Anything I understand, you too will. We are one individual, yet separate. You are me. I am you. We exist.. as one, but are separated."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. He certainly hadn't expected this to happen when he agreed to be Ino's guinea pig. "So... Do I call you Naruto, or.. what?"

The soldier like echo shook his head. "No. As you are now, you are closer to the original Uzumaki Naruto that we once were. You will assume that name."

The whiskered boy grinned gratefully. "Alright! So.. uh.. what do I call you then?"

The echo tilted his head to the side slightly, and thought for several seconds. "My name is.. Sarge. Commit it to memory."

The smaller blonde sweat dropped. "Wait, what? Sarge?! What the hell kind of name is that? Didn't you just take it from that old movie Ino's dad had us watch?"

The newly dubbed Sarge's eyes narrowed coldly. Barely a second later Naruto was punched into the ground with enough force to create a crater around his body. "First lesson, maggot! I won't repeat it, but if you break it, I BREAK YOU! DO YOU COPY?!!"

The blonde boy winced in pain and nodded with his face still mashed to the floor. The echo seemed even more pissed if possible. "I didn't hear you, dickhead! SPEAK UP!"

Naruto quickly squawked out a response. "Yes I understand!"

He grunted in pain as a foot smashed down onto his back with the force of a falling tree. "What did I just tell you about the first rule? Show me the proper respect I demand you NO GOOD PIECE OF LIQUID DOG SHIT!"

The whiskered boy ignored the tears threatening to fall. "Sir, yes sir!"

Naruto's ears rung as the echo bellowed into his ears, spittle flying all over his face. "WHAT WAS THAT? I DIDN'T HEAR YOU DOWN THERE, PONDSCUM!"

He bit back a groan. "I SAID, SIR, YES SIR!.. SIR!"

The boy sighed in relief as the heavy foot left his back.

"Better... So you CAN be disciplined."

Naruto frowned at Sarge. "U-uhm. S-si-sir?"

The echo frowned at Naruto. "What." He spoke. It wasn't voiced as a question. Merely a statement.

"W-w-why a-are y-y-y-"

"DAMNIT! YOU FUCKING STUTTERING PRICK! SPEAK YOUR DAMN MIND YOU PUKESTAIN!"

Naruto snapped into a stiff standing position, his body completely rigid. "Why are you so emotional when you told me earlier you were the emotionally detached half of us, sir?!"

A hollow emotionless chuckle was the first response. "You may not realize this, boy, but that final shard held a great deal of our psychological knowledge, along with that cute little movie of Inoichi's. If we are to become powerful, as is our ambition, then I WILL whip you into the proper shape. Psychlogically, the way I act will motivate you enough to rise above those weaklings you dare call your peers. A peer means equal. We will NEVER be equals to those filth. Not as long as I have any say in it."

The whiskered boy shivered as he mentally pictured the horrible things Sarge would do to him to keep his word. How long would it last? Wait a minute. How long was this Sarge bastard around for anyway? He wanted his own mind back, damnit! Not put up with some creepy clone of himself every day. "Sir. When will we return to one being, and not two seperate entities.. Sir!"

Sarge tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Boy.. We can return to being one being at any moment we wish. We have already purified the corrupted shard. However, we won't be doing anything like that... yet."

Naruto's eyes widened in horror. Only the ghost pains of what Sarge had done so far to him kept him from going off into a profane rant. "Sir. Why is that, Sir?!"

The soldier echo smirked and turned his back to Naruto. "Simple. You will train and become strong on your own power, as will I. When we eventually become one single entity again you will have your own power, with the addition of my own. In lay mans terms.. On that fateful day that we actually NEED to rejoin, your power will effectively double. Understood?"

The orange clad boy nodded. "Understood, Sir!"

Sarge started walking off to a thick iron door that Naruto hadn't noticed when he first entered Kyuubi's room. He opened the door and entered a new dark room. As he closed the door he spoke. "We're done here, brat. Return to consciousness by picturing yourself waking up."

The door closed shut. Sarge's voice echoed the dimly lit chamber.

"Doubtless.. We will meet.. again."

Naruto shivered, and pictured himself waking up. He didn't want to be anywhere near that crazy bastard half of his. Frankly, right now he thought the Kyuubi was a small cute kitten compared to Sarge.

* * *

"-To!"

"Na-"

"Rut-"

"Naruto-kun! Naruto-kun! Are you okay?!"

The blonde boy blinked slightly as his blurry surroundings became vivid again. He sat up, noticing that he had been laying on a soft purple sheeted bed. He was in Ino's room. "H-Hikari-san?" he asked in a shaken voice.

The wind was knocked out of him as a small lithe form tackled him in a hug. As he idly listened to Ino babble in his chest, he noted Ino's parents and the Hokage were in the room. He wrapped his arms around Ino and rocked her slightly, hoping to calm her down. Several minutes later, she was calm enough to detach herself from the hug and sat in a chair nearby.

The Hokage was the first to break the silence. "Naruto-kun.. You had us quite worried there for a while. How are you feeling?"

Naruto blinked. How did he feel? He didn't feel any different from before Ino's jutsu. Well.. aslong as you ignore the ghost pains caused by Sarge. That guy was a pure grade-A bastard. Not even Sasuke on his worst day was a worse bastard than Sarge.

**'I HEARD THAT, PUNK!'**

Naruto flinched when Sarge's voice filled his thoughts in a bellow. "I'm fine, Jiji. I guess I'm just a bit tired from having to put that mirror back together again."

Inoichi's eyes lit up in surprise. "Wait, what? You mean Ino actually did that technique correctly? The only way you could possibly be conscious right now is if the entirety of your memories have been relived by you."

The boy nodded. "Yeah. It was kind of vexing having to scour the entirety of my mind, especially with it so dark, trying to find those fragments."

Ino grinned happily. "Hah! See? It worked 'Ruto-kun. You're smarter already. Look at the bigger words your using."

Naruto blinked, surprise blindingly clear on his face. "You're right... It's like, I can think clearer or something? My thoughts aren't as... chaotic and.. disorganized anymore. I feel.. wonderful!"

Hikari smiled softly, and let out a sigh of relief along with everyone else in the room. "That's wonderful, Naruto-kun. Though that doesn't mean you and Ino-chan are in any less trouble! Attempting a high level technique when a solid background and framework is requirement, something which you don't have yet young lady!, is completely unacceptable! You're both grounded!"

Ino immediately sulked, her plan having backfired. Naruto though..."Wait, what?! You can't ground me! You're not even my mother!"

Hikari smirked cruelly at Naruto. "Not while you're under my roof, mister! That jutsu Ino-chan used on you might have slow acting side-effects. So you WILL be staying here for at least two weeks while myself and Inoichi monitor you."

The boy's jaw gaped in horror. Grounded? Him?! The thought was laughable, what with him being an orphan. But now? This was ridiculous!

He turned to Inoichi and Hiruzen for help, but both were nodding sagely, choosing not to argue with Hikari in one of her pissed off moods. He sighed, resigned. "Could you at least not ground me? I like being able to move freely..?"

Hikari chuckled condescendingly. "I think I didn't make myself clear the first time I told you, Naruto-kun.. My house, my rules! In fact... While you're here, you are to call me 'Mom'. Got it?"

Naruto gaped. "But, but,but. Jiji! Help me!"

The old Hokage shook his head, amusement dancing in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. But she's right, you know? We discussed this with Inoichi-kun while you were comatose. I don't want anything bad happening to you, ESPECIALLY any possible side effects the technique might cause with the Kyuubi sealed in you."

Both his shoulders sagged in defeat. The boy nodded, resigned to his fate. He decided not to tell them about Sarge. Frankly, Sarge scared him more than anything they could think up.

Standing next to him, Ino nudged him playfully. "Cheer up, whiskers. It's only two weeks. It isn't THAT bad."

Hiruzen grinned slightly. "Good, good. I best be off now that everything seems to be fine." He turned to Inoichi. "Inoichi-kun, I trust you will alert me of any situations?" At the blonde Jounin's nod, the Hokage disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Inoichi sighed and muttered a phrase his friend of the Nara clan had personalized. "Troublesome... Ino-chan. Try not to sneak into the clan archives again, please? There's a reason why you are only taught certain techniques at certain times. I don't want my daughter to accidentally melt her mind because of a jutsu used incorrectly."

The girl nodded, abased. Inoichi turned a stern look to Naruto. "And you.. I'm disappointed in you Naruto-kun. I thought you'd know better than falling for Ino's little 'crying girl' act. I expect you to resist in the future."

The blonde nodded with a sweat drop. What a hypocrite. Every time Ino pulled that move on him, he bent over,whipped like a meek dog, and did as she asked. Inoichi gazed at the blonde for several seconds before nodding and leaving the room.

Hikari sighed and playfully tussled both the blonde children's hair. "Go wash up you two. Dinner is almost ready. Ino-chan, lend Naruto-kun a pair of your PJ's. We'll fetch your clothing for the next two weeks tomorrow, Naruto-kun."

"Yes Mom.." "Yes Hikari-san..."

The older female blonde frowned at the boy. "Naruto-kun. What did I tell you to call me? Now again, both of you, with feeling."

Two groans met Hikari's ears. "Yes Mom." "Yes Mom." They echoed.

She smiled cheerfully. "Good! Now, chop, chop. I'll see you downstairs."

Ino smirked. "I guess I should welcome you to the family then, 'Ruto-kun?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "What, you want me to start calling you my sister now?"

The girl shook her head. "Nah. You're not exactly annoying little or older brother material. It's still the same as always, silly."

She patted her dress and stood up leaving the room. "See you in a bit, whiskers."

The orange clad boy sighed. This sucked.. Admittedly, calling Ino's mother the way she asked him to gave him a fuzzy feeling in his gut. Though, being grounded still sucked. At least he had some alone time now, if only for a few minutes.

**'Think again, dipshit! Once this two week vacation of yours is over, I'm kicking your ass so hard that you'll BEG that woman to ground you again! DO YOU COPY!?'**

Naruto groaned pitifully. "Yes sir. Loud and clear, sir," he mumbled softly.

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

The God of Flash

Chapter 7

By ToxicManipulator

* * *

Today, Hanabi reflected, was a rather crappy, if not annoying day; by her own standards anyway. It could be described as dull, dreary and probably monotonous as well.

Her day had started out okay enough. Though, from then and on it just went downhill.

The day had started with Hanabi following her usual routine. Wake up, go bath, get dressed. Eat breakfast while being scolded by her father and ignoring the usual death glares Neji sent her and Hinata's way.

Not like she really cared anyway, her mind was occupied with more important things. Like figuring out how to make Naruto her future husband, and at the same time, sabotage Hinata's pathetic attempts at catching the blonde's eye.

Honestly! Did that silly older sister of her really think stuttering and mumbling(don't forget the index finger poking and blushing!), would make him notice her? Or even wasting time stalking him for that matter? Though she had a sneaking suspicion that Hinata had 'some' success with her stalking plan. Every time she came back from 'observing Naruto-kun' she seemed to be on cloud nine. Well, most of the time anyway.

Hanabi was slightly disturbed when she had snuck into Hinata's room, and read her diary finding very accurate descriptions of where he went at what times and on what days. She made a copy of his time schedule of course, to 'coincidentally run into' Naruto from time to time. The silly boy STILL didn't suspect anything. All the more better for her.

It had been through one of her 'encounters' with Naruto that she learned amongst other things, from an old ramen stall owner, when the boy's birthday was. That had lead to her buying a birthday gift for Naruto. Surely she would catch the boy's eye if only SHE gave him a birthday gift?

The lavender eyed girl had gotten the young boy several vouchers for ramen at Ichiraku's Ramen stand,(She had it in good confidence, that the boy really REALLY likes his ramen.) and a fox shaped pouch he could use as a wallet.(They didn't have a cat or wolf shaped one like she wanted to get him.)

Of course the blonde would appreciate the gifts, and then shower her with the love and affection she rightfully deserved with him being her future husband.(Or so she thought.) She blinked. Her thoughts were getting off track again.

Then again.. It might have happened too! If that damned Yamanaka hussy hadn't also gotten him some birthday gifts! Just thinking of Ino gave Hanabi the urge to destroy something with the rage of a thousand demons! She always managed(barely) to restrain herself, though. Hyuuga were elite. Control over emotions were child's play!

The Yamanaka hussy, as she refused to call Ino anything else in her mind, had gotten her spousal interest a 'friendship bracelet', as she called it, with many pointless little charms attached all around it(she also wore an identical bracelet, for whatever reason). The boy seemed to enjoy and appreciate the gift though, much to Hanabi's irritation. And then, to rub salt into the lavender eyed girl's wounds, Ino had also gotten Naruto an earring with a small fox head attached.

When Ino had asked the blonde to promise to only pierce his left ear in later years, he had already taken the tip of a kunai and pierced his ear lobe on his own. Hanabi would reluctantly admit that he looked good with it on. Well, probably not infront or anywhere near the blonde haired girl.

And that brought up another point. That annoyance, Ino, didn't even seem to notice that Hanabi was always cold to her. It was almost.. like she didn't even care! They were supposed to be bitter rivals or something! Not the case with Ino though. She was always friendly and polite enough, as long as you didn't purposely piss her off. Kami knows, that girl Ami was still purple from bruises, as a testament to that fact. Turns out, insulting Naruto in the blonde haired girl's presence would bring the wrath of the she-demon known as Yamanaka Ino upon you.

After the gift giving had been done, Hinata had shown up. Without any presents, Hanabi smugly noted. Hinata had quickly shown her prowess and worthiness as an opponent in vying for Naruto's heart, when she had improvised skillfully. Apparently she had only just found out when the blonde's birthday was, and was 'REALLY SORRY' for not getting him anything. She then proceeded to burst into a bout of 'sad and sorrowful' tears. Almost sad enough to make Hanabi vomit.

The long raven haired Hyuuga had been 'slighty pissed' when Naruto had comforted the weeping girl, and told her sincerely that he was happy she felt that way, and that presents weren't really necessary and that only the thought really counted. Hanabi felt differently of course, and much to her smug gratification, Hinata thought so too.

The day had quickly passed once the academy began, and then right when she almost gave up hope, lady luck smiled upon her. She found a way to brighten her slightly dull day, when Yuhi Kurenai came to pick up her and Hinata. The young ruby eyed teenage Chunin was their 'caretaker', while their father was busy with clan business. Usually on these days, the aspiring genjutsu mistress would take them out for lunch somewhere.

With a calculating glint in her eye, Hanabi pounced on her lone prey.

* * *

Naruto walked through the halls of the shinobi academy, heading toward the exit, with a huge smile on his face.

Today, was possibly the greatest day he had ever had in his life!(Right up there, next to buying a cozy apartment and discovering Ramen). His friends had actually found out about his birthday somewhere and got him gifts! Before, no one other than the 'old man' had given him gifts, or even wished him a happy birthday like the 'old man's' two teammates and advisors, 'old man Homura' and 'granny Koharu'.

Yup. Today definitely made top five. To celebrate, he was going to go to Ichiraku's and use his( drum roll please) RAMEN VOUCHERS! He held the vouchers into the air reverently, and thought for a moment he could almost hear a choir of angels singing. He shook his head to clear it. No time to day dream. There were bowls of ramen with his name on them waiting at Ichiraku's!

Just as he was about to turn around a corner, he felt a petite arm sliding around his right arm, and dragging him away back to the academy. He gaped and weakly lifted his arm in the direction of Ichiraku ramen, whining pitifully. He heard a groan, and then a girl's voice. "Naruto, stop being so melodramatic will you? It's your birthday. You're not going there today. You can go any other day."

Naruto's eyes filled with tears at the thought of NOT having ramen. "W-w-what? Hanabi-chan, please don't do this to me! I NEED my ramen!"

The girl, still dragging him, snorted. "Not today, future husband." The whisker faced boy blinked. "Sorry, what was that? I didn't hear that last part you mumbled, Firework-chan?"

Hanabi's eyes widened in embarrassment as her face flushed scarlet. "N-nothing. You must be hearing things." The blonde merely scratched his head in confusion, coming to the conclusion that the choir of angels he heard earlier was similar to now. He was hearing things, apparently.

Two feminine giggles entered his ears. He gaped for a moment. "Uh, Firework-chan? Did you just giggle, or hear anyone nearby giggle?" The girl in question tilted her head to the side cutely, and shook it. "No, I didn't Naruto-kun. C'mon, I want you to meet someone."

Naruto was slightly freaked out about hearing two girl like voices giggling when he KNEW it had not happened nearby him. One male-like giggle he MIGHT understand. That is to say, IF Sarge did such things.. which he highly doubted. Sarge would sooner be inclined to burning down an orphanage than 'giggling' of all things.

* * *

_Somewhere in heaven._

Two beautiful otherworldly women lay on a cloud looking down at a blonde haired boy being pulled along by a lavender eyed girl.

"Hey Kami-chan? You sure it's a good idea to toy with our little golden boy? Isn't this 'meddling in the affairs of mortals' like Toki-jiji is always yammering about?" A golden eyed brunette asked her companion. Amongst the divine, she was known as the incarnation or entity of Luck and Unluck. Toki-jiji, or Old man Time, was the divine entity that represented all things time. And Kami, represented life.

"We're not really involving ourselves in any way, Myouri-chan. A bit of mischief like imaginary singing choirs of angels won't do any harm. Besides, Naru-kun thinks he imagined it." A blonde haired woman with long silk strands of hair said with a mischievous grin.

The brunette giggled. "You've been hanging around Eris too much. Her mischievousness has rubbed off on you."

Kami turned her sparkling blue eyes down to earth, humming playfully.

* * *

_Back in Konoha._

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when he and Hanabi neared Hinata and an older looking ruby eyed teenager.

Kurenai rose an eyebrow when she heard Hinata gasp as they noticed Hanabi approaching with a blonde boy in tow. "Hanabi-chan. We were wondering when you would show up. Who is this young man?"

Hanabi smiled politely at Kurenai, and tugged the nervous looking Naruto closer. "Naruto-kun, this is Yuuhi Kurenai. She is our caretaker on the days that father is very busy with the clan. Kurenai-san, this is Uzumaki Naruto, my best friend."

The younger Hyuuga sibling smirked when Hinata glared at her when she called him her best friend.

Kurenai appraised the young boy that had managed to garner the attention of both her charges. He didn't look like much at first glance. Completely uninteresting, save for the unique birthmarks on his face, and his unique shade of hair. It was only when she looked deeper, underneath the underneath as Hatake Kakashi always pointed out at random times, that she noticed some interesting observations.

Were she not an aspiring genjutsu mistress she wouldn't have noticed the very small and minute actions the blonde hid expertly.

The way he would occasionally subtly scan his surroundings with sharp calculating eyes for a second before his cheerful disposition returned. How he would pulse his chakra in an incredibly small amount every several seconds. How he knew the skill, didn't really concern her; instead she was impressed over the fact that had she not been standing next to him, she would not have noticed his pulse. Though the boy didn't show it clearly, he was incredibly aware of his surroundings. His muscles also seemed to tense, much like a snake coiled and ready to strike, at the moments that he used the chakra pulse.

This boy was far more than meets the eye.

She smiled politely at the whiskered boy. "Hello, Naruto-san, it is nice to meet you."

When Naruto returned the courtesy Kurenai turned to Hanabi waiting for the explanation she knew would come. "Could Naruto-kun please join us for lunch, Kurenai-san. It's his birthday today. Heaven knows he should at least eat something other than ramen for today, if not every day."

Slightly surprised at Hanabi's forwardness, Kurenai agreed, and they headed off to the market square where they would find a restaurant. The ruby eyed kunoichi had to suppress the urge to laugh whenever the two siblings would glare at each other, eyes promising embarrassment, whenever the oblivious blonde wasn't looking.

Truly Hinata and Hanabi were a study in opposites, despite being siblings. Where Hanabi was confident, Hinata was shy. And where Hinata was empathetic, Hanabi was indifferent, or at least her mask was. Even with her exceptional analyzing abilities, Kurenai couldn't read much emotion from Hanabi beyond what she allowed past her facade.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she felt two arms wrap snugly around her middle and a voice whispering huskily into her ear. "Well, well. If it isn't my little Nai-chan! I've missed you every minute I was on my mission, y'know?"

Kurenai flushed slightly. "Anko-chan.. It's good to see you too. Erm.. what are you doing?" She finished, squeaking, when the now identified purple haired girl nipped her ear.

"Why isn't it obvious? I've missed my little Nai-chan. So I'm making up for lost time." Kurenai's breathing turned to short gasps as Anko placed small pecks on her neck and settling for nibbling on her jaw line.

The ruby eyed teen, moaned slightly, and groaned in embarrassment when she realised they had an audience. "Anko-chan. Not now, please."

The older teenager, with her purple hair spiked upwards into a pony tail sighed. Kurenai could practically hear the pout in her sulking voice. "Fine, I'll stop Nai-chan. You're no fun." The arms around her middle tightened once more, before letting go.

Kurenai sighed and turned to her young charges. Hinata and Hanabi were gaping at her and Anko. She was surprised when Naruto merely shrugged and turned to study the sky, not unlike the males of the Nara clan.

Inwardly, it was different story for Naruto. When the scantily clad purple haired teen had first showed up, the blonde had heard two voices clearly whistling inside his mind. He didn't mind that all too much. He was 'hearing things' again. He only freaked out though, when the two voices started commenting once Anko got frisky with Kurenai.

**"If that isn't some fine girl on girl goodness, then I don't know what is."**

**"Agreed. I'd have to rate this a ten out of ten"**

**"A ten? I don't know.. I've seen much more arousing scenes bef- HELLO! She snuck her hand underneath Red's pants!"**

**"Hah! See? It only gets better and better!"**

**"If I wasn't still sealed up, I'd be using this to write a book of EPIC proportions!"**

**"You're a novelist?"**

At this point, Naruto was hyperventilating. Two unknown, well, one unknown voice and Sarge were casually discussing something he once saw a young couple do privately in a park before. Hearing sarge's voice was fine and dandy, but the new addition nearly made Naruto whimper. Did he develop ANOTHER fricken personality fragment? Was he going crazy? WHEN would it END?! Oh Kami, oh Kami, oh Kami-

**"Oh shit.."**

**"What?"**

**"The naive one is going to give himself a brain hemorrhage if he doesn't calm down soon. I think the sheer erotic beauty of the scene before us nearly melted his brain."**

**"Oh Kami.. I knew I should have forced him to read smutty novels. Can you bring him in here?"**

Naruto's world faded to darkness and then he regained awareness within the sewers of his mind. He quickly went to where he remembered Sarge last being. He entered the gigantic room that he knew held the Kyuubi, but ignored that and tried to find the door Sarge had disappeared into last time.

Several minutes of frustratingly patting the wall for hidden doors, Naruto gave up. He dropped to the floor and sulked. Where the hell was Sarge? Didn't he bring him here for a reason? Admittedly, he hadn't seen Sarge since their last encounter, as usually the crazy bastard would give him orders via his mind. Naruto was about to start searching again, only to gasp in fright when he heard someone speaking from Kyuubi's kage.

**"How long will it take that nitwit to get here?"** A Dark and foreboding voice questioned.

**"Knowing him? He's probably outside the cage, sitting on the floor and moping like an imbecile."** Naruto recognized this voice. It was the same venomous dark voice of Sarge, the creepy bastard.

The orange clad boy stood up, and warily entered the cage containing the greatest and most powerful of the tailed demons. When he finally entered deep enough into the cage his blood froze cold. He had been expecting the usual dark and damp prison, along with blood decorated walls when he entered. But.. this?! This was ridiculous!

The room was decorated with a red shag carpet, and soft red colored walls. On the wall facing a large table in the center of the room, was a giant screen showing what appeared to be the sky. It showed what he saw when conscious. Seated at the one side of the table sat Sarge, with several cards in his left hand, and a bottle of sake in his right. He was currently cursing about something along the lines of being dealt crappy cards.

This all had not entirely surprised him all that much. But what did scare the shit out of him, was the figure that sat across Sarge with a superior and haughty expression on her face. Long silky ruby hair flowed down her shoulders to her lower back. Her amused eyes were a shade suspiciously similar to blood. To her left sat a huge stack of chips, her winnings from the card game no doubt. The blonde paled when he saw nine large fluffy tails lazing in oddly random motions behind her back.

"K-k-kyuubi?! What the h-hell!?"

The two sitting at the table turned as one to the orange clad boy and eyed him with lazily.

**"This is your opposite? He doesn't look like much. Kami-chan must hate me, putting me in a container that has such a idiotic looking face... Well? You got anything to say? Stop looking at me like and idiot, idiot."**

Fear forgotten, Naruto blew up, forsaking all of Sarge's lessons on 'tact and discipline'. "HEY! Who do you think you are to call me an idiot?! Stop saying idiot so much, you idiotic idiot! And what the hell's wrong with you? You look like a girl but have the voice of a guy!"

From where he sat, Sarge sighed miserably. What would it take for his lessons to sink into Naruto permanently? Kyuubi's lips twitched amused. _**"**_**You've got some spunk brat. I like that. As for my voice... **_**Does this sound more pleasing to your puny mortal ears?"**_ Her voice had changed from a deep foreboding baritone, to a soft soprano feminine voice. She sounded almost angelic, were it not for the fact that she was really a mountain sized demon that took part in wanton destruction for shit's and giggles.

Naruto gaped, astonished. "W-wait. You m-mean you're really a g-girl?!"

The buxom red head rolled her eyes, and drawled in a sarcastic voice. _**"Noooo. You think? I thought you were joking when you said he was a bit slow, but I guess you were right, Sar."**_

"I can only pray that we don't stay that way on the day we merge." Sarge grunted.

The orange clad boy frowned at the comments, but held his tongue, wanting to find out why he was here. "Uh.. Is there any reason you brought me here?"

Kyuubi tilted her head slightly, and nodded. _**"Indeed. I brought you into your mind to prevent you from hurting yourself. My theory is that the sight of Kurenai nearly being ravaged by that purple haired woman, nearly fried your puny little brain."**_ At Sarge's grunt and pointed look, Kyuubi nodded and continued. _**"And Sar wanted to discuss something with you also, without you freaking out publically. It's about getting past that little block in that speed technique of yours."**_

While insulted at being called stupid again, the orange clad boy perked up when the red head mentioned Sarge being able to help him with his problem. The last several weeks Naruto had finally figured out, and mastered, to a point, how to appear anywhere in a distance of five-hundred feet. His only problem came with the fact that he couldn't maneuver around fast enough to make a workable fighting style out of his technique.

He had tested it on his shadow clones, but they always seemed to be able to block his advances easily thanks to chakra pulse. And whenever he forced his muscles to catch up, he accidentally tore them in the most painful of ways. The human body simply wasn't made to move like he wanted it to. An example would be him, appearing behind a shadow clone facing away from it, because he couldn't change directions while using the technique, and not being able to turn around fast enough to attack effectively.

The fact that Sarge actually knew how to get past this block instantly cheered Naruto up, making him briefly forget about the Kyuubi. "R-really? Awesome! I'm gunna master my super cool technique! Hahahahaha!"

SMACK

Naruto glared at the offending limb, only to blink in surprise when he saw it was one of Kyuubi's furry appendages that had smacked him. She shook her finger mockingly at him. _**"Behave, brat. You're giving me a headache with your childish yelling."**_

He nodded his head mutely, and looked eagerly at Sarge.

Naruto's older looking teenage counterpart regarded him calculatingly, before he spoke, his voice almost as low as a whisper. **"Tell me.. what have you learned of the Hyuuga from the shadow clone spy network? Their techniques specifically."**

The orange clad boy blinked in surprise. "Well, sir.. they can block off your chakra through the tenketsu and prevent your body from functioning properly if done correctly."

Sarge nodded and motioned for Naruto to continue. "There's also this technique that's supposedly an ultimate defence or something. Apparently they spin in circles really fast and make a supposedly impenetrable defence."

The militaristically clad blonde nodded, a smirk gracing his features. **"Bingo. Don't you find it odd that they can rotate their bodies at the sheer speed required for such a technique WITHOUT tearing their muscles each time? Why don't you subtly try asking your two Hyuuga friends if they know how it is possible."**

Naruto's grin nearly split his face as he nodded.

**"Good. Now get out of here. You're being called outside in the waking world."**

The orange clad boy responded by closing his eyes and disappearing from his mindscape.

Sarge turned to a smirking and amused looking Kyuubi, and rose his eye brow questioningly. _**"Interesting brat you share a body with... So naive too..To think he's foolish enough to believe that your real name is Sarge, of all things.. Eh, Masaru? It would be all too easy to just fool him into releasing me from this accursed prison. "**_

**"Oh? And what makes you think you would succeed, Kyuubi-no-Kitsune?"**

The crimson eyed women laughed confidently. _**"Why, don't you know? Foxes are tricksters! Cunning, and deceitful beings we are. I'm sure I could convince him into believing it would be in his best interest to release me!"**_

The temperature in the room dropped drastically as Masaru slowly narrowed his eyes and spoke calmly. **"You would merely be stopped, if it ever came to that."**

Kyuubi smirked mockingly at the blonde. _**"Let whosoever wishes to stop me come. Anyone foolish enough to attempt so, shall die."**_ She commented imperiously.

The red haired woman froze when the blonde laughed mockingly at her. **"Indeed? You presume yourself to be in control of this situation while you are but a mere prisoner? Pathetic."**

Sarge turned his back on the crimson haired woman, ignoring her building rage. She glared at him. _**"You bastard! Don't you dare underestimate me! I'm the greatest of the tailed beasts! The Queen of all fox beings!"**_ Her anger reached breaking point when she noticed the target of her ire was ignoring her and walking away. She snapped, and with a growl charged at him, intending to tear him apart.

_**"BASTARD! Don't ignore me!"**_

Right as she was about to reach him and rip out his heart, she froze.

_**"AAAAAAUGH!!"**_

She fell to the floor screaming and writhing in pain. Her entire body felt as if it was being crushed underneath the force of countless tons of weight, while a corrosive acid was poured on her. On her forehead, glowing in a dark ominous red, appeared markings accompanied by the word 'SEAL'. Her soul felt as if it was being torn apart viciously in a thousand different directions. And then, It all stopped.

She looked up to her tormentor, and for the first time in her entire existence felt fear unlike any she would have ever imagined. Gazing at her coldly and uncaringly were two sapphire orbs, as if her existence was comparable to an annoying insect. Only one other had gazed at her before with such eyes. _'Shinigami' _she thought, shivering at the mere thought of the one whom had sealed her away.

After what she felt was an eternity of silence, his voice broke her thoughts.

**"Your arrogance, will one day mark your undoing.. Kyuubi-no-Kitsune. I may not have control over my body, like my weak counterpart, but in here I am above your paltry power. Your power in this state.. is frail. Your titles? Meaningless."**

His eyes briefly flashed a dark ominous black for a moment, before reverting back to the normal icy blue they usually held. **"Know your place, prisoner. Until the day I finally break free of this wretched body I am forced to share with that weakling, I will be your company. Try, atleast to make my unwanted stay here a little less unpleasant while I await that day."**

He turned around, and walked off, not before leaving her with two parting remarks. **"The only reason I allow your continued existence, is for the weakling's survival. Remember my words, for I shall not repeat them."**

Kyuubi winced painfully as she attempted to sit up. Usually her chakra would be healing her by now, but for some reason her healing factor felt almost like it was.. blocked? A whimper escaped her throat as she attempted to stand up, only to fall down in a heap. After several painful minutes had passed she finally sighed in relief, as a golden ethereal like energy covered her and slowly started mending her wounds.

_'Thank you, Kami-chan..' _

* * *

Naruto's awareness of his surroundings returned to him when Hanabi nudged his side and tugged his arm to have him follow her. "Stop dozing off Naruto-kun. We're almost there. Hurry up before Anko and Kurenai leave us behind."

The boy nodded in response and allowed Hanabi to guide him, not noticing the jealous looks Hinata shot Hanabi. His mind was more preoccupied by the mere thought of finally completing his speed technique. True, he had it down enough that he could appear anywhere in a five-hundred foot radius, but that was pointless if he could not incorporate it into a decent fighting style. Despite his huge increase in speed, he was still slow. Any seasoned Chunin would probably beat the living shit out of him at his current level.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he realised they were in a modest restaurant a bit west of Konoha's market sector. Some time while thinking, he had found himself seated at a table. He studied his surroundings and noted Kurenai's flushed form. Anko had teasingly pulled her onto her lap, embarrassing her. She had quickly returned to her seat after asking the purple haired woman several times. He blinked. "Hey, Kurenai-san? Why are you so embarrassed being hugged by Anko-san?"

Both Kurenai and Anko were greatly surprised by his question. While not illegal, homosexuality was widely frowned upon in Konoha. Like any other country, Konoha had its fair share of homophobes. Amongst the noble clans homosexuals were generally disliked because of their inability to reproduce naturally. Probably the reason why both Hyuuga children were slightly uncomfortable nearby Anko's advances.

"We're in public.." Kurenai mumbled feeling embarrassed by the question.

Naruto tilted his head questioningly to the side. "So? It's just public affection, right? I've seen other couples doing it plenty of times before. What's wrong with it?"

Both Kurenai and Anko couldn't speak, unable to diffuse the blonde's logic. Hinata shyly spoke up. "U-um.. N-n-naruto-kun. K-kurenai-san and A-anko-san a-a-are both w-women."

The whiskered boy frowned confused. "So? What's that have to do with anything?"

The short haired hyuuga girl elaborated. "P-people t-think i-it's n-not n-n-normal f-for two people o-of the s-same gender t-to be in a r-r-relationship, N-naruto-kun."

Naruto scowled irritated. "That's just stupid! If two people like each other and are happy with one another, that's all that matters, right? Who gives a rat's ass what other people think? Screw them! If people stopped doing things just because other sheep didn't like what they were doing, then we wouldn't be where we are today, and society would have stagnated centuries ago!"

Kurenai's eyebrows had slowly risen as Naruto continued his tirade. With each passing word her heart slowly lifted and she felt more confident with her feelings toward her purple haired friend that she had vehemently tried to deny. Underneath the table her hand slowly found Anko's, and shyly held it, receiving a squeeze in return.

The ruby eyed teenager smiled at Naruto. "I'm glad you think that way, Naruto-kun. Not many people are as open-minded and nonjudgmental as you. And.. your right. People shouldn't let the narrow-mindedness of others affect them."

Anko smirked at the blonde. "You're pretty interesting kid. I might have to keep an eye on you in the coming years."

Hinata and Hanabi felt guilty, being homophobes themselves without having realised to what extent. Perhaps in time they could view the world the way Naruto did?

Time passed, and they all ordered their meals and received them. They were waiting for the bill when Naruto remembered that he still had to ask Hinata or Hanabi about their spinny clan technique.

"Hey, Hinata, Hanabi? I heard from somewhere that your clan can do a technique that makes them spin around really fast and creates an impenetrable defence?"

The girls nodded, slightly surprised at the question. Hanabi answered him. "Yes. Father gave us a demonstration of it several weeks ago. It's called the Kaiten. It involves the Hyuuga user releasing chakra from there fingers and creating a spinning shell around them. Why do you ask?"

Naruto nodded, trying desperately to hide his eagerness. "How do they spin around so fast without tearing their leg muscles apart?"

Both Hinata and Hanabi looked blankly at him and shook their heads. "I don't know, Naruto-kun. Father didn't explain more than that." Hanabi said.

"Actually, kid. I think I could answer that. My ex-sensei told me about this a long time ago" Anko said, grinning foxily at the orange clad boy.

Everyone at the table perked up and leaned closer to hear what Anko had to say. "True, moving at speeds faster than the human body can handle WILL tear apart their leg muscles, but the Hyuuga found a way around that using chakra manipulation alone." She held up her hand just as Naruto was about to speak again, and continued her lecture.

"You might wonder why it sounds simple, but it's not. What really happens, is they create two platforms using chakra alone. The first platform is the one on the bottom and anchored to the ground, while the second platform above the bottom one, is anchored to the feet."

Hinata and Hanabi looked slightly confused at Anko's description, but Naruto and Kurenai were gaping at Anko, clearly in disbelief at the shear complexity of such a chakra technique. Swallowing the rest of her glass of water, Anko continued. "The real surprise comes with the fact that along with retaining the two platforms, you must use chakra alone to rotate the top platform, and yourself in turn. The only problem here is, it takes much too large amounts of chakra to do that, so, they improvised by doing a starting motion to save the chakra needed to begin the spin. The faster you spin the less chakra is needed."

Naruto's face went through different phases of shock and awe, then realization and understanding. Soon enough, a full blown grin was present on his as he begun chuckling with a scheming voice, twirling an imaginary goatee. Whether or not the others at the table were freaked out by his actions, they chose not to speak up.

"So, what did you need to know that for anyway, kid?"

The blonde shook his face, pasting on an 'innocent' expression. "What? Can't I be curious? I was just wondering, that's all." Anko didn't buy it for a moment, but let it go when the waitress arrived with the bill.

Hinata and Hanabi were dropped off at the Hyuuga compound soon enough, and Naruto disappeared off to his own devices, leaving only Kurenai and Anko alone. The purple haired woman playfully nudged Kurenai. "Does this mean I can ravage you silly from now on, Nai-chan?" she quipped with a mock innocent expression.

"Anko-chan!"

* * *

Naruto was cackling evilly. Well.. As evilly as a nine year old boy could anyway. He had finally figured out his speed technique! Success and fame would soon become reality, followed by the old timer's cool hat! Not even the huge migraine of having a thousand clones working on the 'chakra pivot' as he called it, would bring him down now! Five days had passed, and he had more or less gotten the rotation down pat. Now all that he needed was practise, practise and more practise.

With a thought, ten bodies of orange appeared around him, marking the usage of the shadow clone technique. They quickly got into fighting stances, readying themselves for their creator's attacks.

The blonde boy grinned foxily before flickering away and reappearing behind a clone. With the help of his chakra pivot technique, he quickly rotated around and faced his clone, landing a powerful kick into its head causing it to dispell.

He turned around and flickered away just in time as a volley of shuriken passed where had just been. Appearing behind the clone that had thrown the shuriken, the blonde stuck a kunai through its neck, dispelling it.

He looked up just in time to raise his arms and block two roundhouse kick's aimed at his head. With a flicker he disappeared, and reappeared behind the two clones, dispelling them with blows to their heads.

With a smirk he motioned with his hand for the remaining six clones to attack him. As one they attacked him, and shortly in no order, the were dispelled one after the other with a kunai being lodged into their skulls.

A flicker in the center of the clearing signalled Naruto's technique finally coming to an end. A full blown grin could be seen on his whiskered face.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" He shouted happily.

"Now, to practise against clones that use the chakra pulse to predict my movements!"

By the end of the day, Naruto ended up battered and bruised after much practising of using his new technique. But despite his rough and haggard appearance, the large smile remained true on his face.

He scratched his head tiredly as he slowly trudged on home. "Now all I need, is a cool name for my technique... But what? Hmmm.."

"Jikoku... Hirameki... Yeah, yeah! That's an awesome name!

With a notable bounce in his step, Naruto walked the rest of the way home.

* * *

A/N

A quick note to those too lazy to use a translator on this. Naruto's technique literally translates to Instant Flash. I didn't use shunpo because I didn't really want to rip off Bleach or foreshadow a possible sequel crossover in the future. For those interested, Masaru means, 'to surpass' or 'to exceed'. Anyways. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.


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